Opposites Attract
by Writerswand
Summary: Katara's kidnapping. Zuko's quest. Sokka finds Aang alone. Many Semi-OC introduced. The twisted TV show.  Zutara    full summary inside  Tokka Suokka JojoXSokka JetXJojo
1. Chapter 1

**My first Avatar the last air bender fanfic! ^.^' I absolutely love that show. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of this or characters, but I do own the plot line ^.^'**

**Continued summary/plot: What if Zuko didn't speak up at the war meeting, didn't fight his Father and didn't get banished? What if Katara saw her mother getting murdered, became angered and used water bending in front of the fire bender? What if he kidnapped her and brought her to the fire nation instead of killing her? What if only Sokka found Aang? **

**And the revised adventure begins...**

**Zuko: 11 years**

**Katara: 7 years**

**Sokka: 9 years**

**Azula and her friends: 7 years**

**_Chapter 1_**

_Zuko_

I sat with my mom under the cherry tree by the ponds outside the palace, our favorite spot. Azula-my little sister- and her friends played on the opposite side of the pond. Ty-lee kart-wheeled all over the place while my sister sat laughing. Mai sat on the ground board, playing with her little toy weapons.

Ty-lee stood on her hands and grinned. "How you guys like it?"

"Awesome," Mai said in a board tone.

"It was great, but I can do better," Azula said jumping up. She raised her arm and conjured up lightning. She pointed and directed it west. It flew and hit a tree branch, it cracked and fell right next to me. I jumped up, startled. Azula laughed, causing Ty-lee to laugh.

"Azula," my mom said with a stern gaze.

Azula stopped laughing. She turned to Ty-lee and grinned.

"Always the greatest, princess," Ty-lee said curtsying.

I rolled my eyes and turned to watch the baby turtle ducks follow their mother.

"Hey Mom, you want to see what Azula does to turtle ducks?" I asked picking up a small, smooth stone. I threw it at a baby turtle duck causing it to go under.

"Zuko! Why would you do that!?" My Mom cried.

My jaw fell slack as I watched the spot where the turtle duck went under. A few seconds later it came back up and started swimming. I let out a sigh.

Then the mother turtle duck walked out of the pond and bit my foot. Then it swam back in the pond.

"Ow!" I cried holding my foot.

"Serves you right," My mom started, grinning.

I held my foot, rubbing it. "Stupid duck," I muttered.

"You don't mess with a mother's babies or she will come up and get you!" My Mom said crying out at the 'get you' part. She reached over to me and grabbed me. She pulled me over to her and started to tickle me. I laughed, grinned, and struggled with her, until she stopped after a few moments. She held me in her arms until I wriggled away.

She sighed. "And a mother also has to know when to let her babies go," My Mom said before standing up and walking back into the palace.

When her friends had left to go home Azula walked into my room where I lay on my bed, board out of my mind.

"Dad's having a war meeting, I'm going to go," she told me.

"How did you find out?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Uncle Iroh was talking to himself again, he was drinking his tea and chuckling," she grinned.

"You were eavesdropping?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. Why was I surprised? That was normal Azula.

She shrugged again. "So what? He's just a crazy old man,"

"Uncle's not crazy!" I persisted.

"Whatever, the meeting will be starting in a bit, I should be going,"

"How do you know you will be allowed?"

"I'm the princess, I get around," she said before turning around and walking to the door.

She stopped in the door frame and turned her head part way to me. "Oh, you should go as well if you want to be fire lord some day," she said before skipping off.

I walked to the meeting room with my uncle.

"Are you sure you don't want to come have tea with me instead? Maybe throw in a game of Pai Sho?" he asked me.

I sighed. He's been trying to get me out of this for the whole walk. "Azula's going, I think I should,"

Uncle Iroh sighed. "War meetings aren't for young people like yourself, they can be quite....violent? Is that the word?" My uncle paused.

"Azula's younger then me,"

"She's different," Uncle said. "Not in a good way," he added.

"but if I want to be Fire lord someday, I'll have to be present at the meetings," I pointed out.

Uncle muttered something to himself that I could barely make out, something about me, my dad, fire lord, and should be.

I shrugged as he walked away and I entered the meeting room.

My Dad wasn't present, but there was Azula, sitting with all the high ranking generals. They were discussing war strategy, new one's and old. They were planning and discussing, some were agreements, while others turned into arguments. Azula sat on the chair, her legs dangling off the edge as she watched them talk, her eyes wide with excitement. I sat down opposite Azula, my feet didn't quite reach the floor, I rested them on the lower bar of the chair.

The War meeting was quite boring actually. A quiet game of Pai Sho and a nice cup of tea might be nice right now. Azula listened attentively, her eyes glistened with excitement and anxiety. She made no comments though. This was her kind of thing. One strategy they were discussing made me want to throw up. They were going to put a large army in front of a city, while a smaller, stronger group attacked from behind, their weak point, distraction being the key. How could they waste so many lives? Why not just attack from behind from the start, a surprise attack. The meeting dragged on after that, my thoughts all tangled up.

As the generals parted ways I left the meeting room relieved. Azula was waiting for me outside the door.

"So how was it?" she asked as she leaned against the door.

"the last strategy...I did not like, they would waste so many lives-"

Azula cut me off. "Solders are supposed to risk their lives for their homelands right Zuko? If you didn't like it why didn't you speak out? I would have..if it wasn't so perfect. No, scratch that, i could have thought of something better, if it wasn't so good..."Azula trailed, lost in that evil mind of hers.

"I didn't want to get in trouble, I'm only eleven, but..." I trailed unsure of what to say.

"Do whatever it takes to win and rule the world, right Zuko? Kill a few on our side here and there if it demands it..." she trailed and shrugged.

I watched as she walked away, perplexed. How could one little girl be so evil?

_Katara _

"Katara I'm Hungry!" My brother called from behind me as we walked through the snow.

That boy's always hungry, he would eat every second of every day if Mama let him. Sokka was my brother, he was nine years old. My name is Katara, I'm seven years old and the last water bender of the Southern water tribe. The Fire nation invaded us and took a lot of our people. A few months back the men of our village-except for the old-went to fight in the war. Sokka wanted to go fight with our Dad but he's too young. Now he's determined to protect the village.

"Were almost there! The penguins will be the next hill over!" I called back to him.

Sokka mumbled to himself about going to die from lack of hunger and thirst and not wanting to go stupid penguin sledding with his little sister.

I rolled my eyes. "Eat some snow," I suggested.

He bent down and picked some cold, white snow off the ground and placed it in his mouth. He chewed slowly. "Mmm, not half bad,"

I rolled eyes, not expecting him to take me seriously, or for not knowing you can eat snow and it tastes like water already.

We now stood in a small snowy surrounded by penguins. I laughed as penguins surrounded me, trying to get fish out of the hand that I held out. I grabbed the nearest penguin and climbed on it's back. Sokka was already on his, munching on a combination of fish and snow. I rolled my eyes as we started to sled. I laughed and screamed playfully as my penguin slid down the snowy hills on it's belly. I clutched the penguin's back tightly. I looked over and saw Sokka munching on his fish and snow, one hand holding the food, the other the penguin. Occasionally he would cry out when his penguin went over a bump.

After a while the penguins stopped by the water and we got off.

"Thanks!" I cried as they waddled off and dived into the sea. I laughed and grinned as Sokka spoke, being his usual funny, sarcastic, meat loving self.

I stopped laughing and my grin faulted when I saw Gran Gran running towards us.

Sokka frowned. "What is it Gran Gran?"

"Fire Nation...docked on ice...attacking..." she said out of breath from running.

She soon caught her breath and continued. "I must get you children to a safe place! Hurry and follow me, don't drag your feet or your dead!" she quickly explained taking Sokka and my dark hands in her older ones. Sokka and I didn't bother to answer questions as she led us.

We passed our shelter and I saw smoke coming out from the cooking fire.

"Mama!" I cried running to our shelter, breaking out of Gran Gran's grip.

"Katara! Get back here!" Gran Gran called after me holding Sokka's hand.

I ignored her and burst into the shelter. A tall mean looking leaned over Mama, he spoke in a voice so low I couldn't make out what he was saying. Mama didn't look scared...brave Mama. Mama saw me but didn't speak or nothing. She directed her eyes over to the quilt she was mending. I shook my head, wanting to help her. Mama shifted back to the man, but her jaw became firm. I walked over to the quilt quietly and hid behind it.

"I will ask you one more time, just tell me, if you do I will spare your village and leave you in peace, if not it will go up in flames, your choice, now, who is the last water bender?" he asked.

Mama shook her head stubbornly.

The solider sighed. "I heard a little one come in, maybe you will talk if I..." he trailed walking over to the hanging quilt and pulled it aside, revealing me sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around me knees. I looked up at him with big blue eyes.

"No! I- I will tell you," Mama whispered.

The mean man turned his head to her.

"I'm the last water bender, take me, I'll go," she said hanging her head low.

What is she saying? Mama can't bend...

"Were not taking prisoners today dear," he said before stabbing her in the chest with his spear.

She gasped in pain as he pulled it out. She fell to the floor, hands below her as she held her self up, close to death.

I jumped up and ran to the mean man. I screamed at him, tears streaming down my face. I'm watching my Mama die. I lifted my arms up and the snow outside the shelter lifted up and hit him. It melted on him for he was a fire bender.

He scowled. "Your the last water bender?-he looked over at mama-she died trying to protect her daughter, how sweet,"

"Sweeter then you! You killed Mama!" I spat at his boot.

He didn't seem to hear me, his face looked as if he had an idea. He scowled when the spit hit his boot. "Pathetic," He said.

He walked over to me and slapped a gag on my mouth so my screams wouldn't be heard. "Your going on a trip little one," he said picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

"Be strong my little water bender, be strong," were my mom's last words.

The mean fire nation solider took me around the village so people wouldn't see him kidnapping me. I struggled and kicked him to get free but he held me too tightly. It didn't stop me from flailing my little arms around and hitting him in the back, my little legs couldn't get any farther down then his chest. He was too strong for little me.  
We were just boarding the ship when Sokka ran up to the man and jabbed him with his little spear.

"Put my sister down you bastard!" he cried.

The man chuckled and hit Sokka in the head with the butt of his spear. Sokka fell to the ground, unconsciousness. I let out a little whimper.

"Be quiet," the man said before doing the same to me with his spear as he did to me brother.

The last thing I knew before blacking out was being set on the floor of a cold metal ship.

**So how was it? As I said before, I love Avatar! But I still have yet to see Cameron's Avatar. He stole my name a spelled it wrong! . Anyways, I also love Zuatara! ^.^' So, I think this is one of my best-maybe even best- fanfictions so far! What do you think? R/R! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for taking so long to update, been busy having no life, lol.**

**Wow, this story seems popular. ^.^ I feel loved.**

**Thank you to the kind readers that favorite or story alert this! I know reviewing can sometimes be a hassle.  
**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I sadly don't own anything. (except the plot line and some pairings, of course) **

**And to the reviewers...**

**candierules: Love your pen name, lol. me too, Zutara all the way! **

**charitybenignos: I don't really get you pen name, lol. Well of course I'm continuing, it's one of my faves!**

**Tigerlily- well thank you! Here it is ----V  
**

**Chapter 2**

***Katara's POV; 7 years*  
**

I sat huddled in the corner of a dark, dank cell, my arms wrapped around my knees. I shivered, only in my lightweight water tribe styled dress. My parka lay on the other side of the cell, cold and wet with snow. That would do more harm then good if warm. I rubbed my hands on my arms, trying to keep warm. had tried to escape earlier, but the space between the bars of the cell were too small for even me! I squeezed my eyes shut. Earlier today I had been penguin sledding with Sokka, i was happy. Who knew everything can turn out this way? I licked my dry lips. My throat and parched and I was very thirsty. I eyed my parka and suddenly had an idea. I lifted a good amount of water off of my parka and drank it. It tasted a little weird, probably from being on my parka. Then I had another idea. I drew in a deep breath and lifted all the water off my parka. I froze it into a large ice cube before dropping it in the corner of the cell for later. I crawled over to my newly warm and dry parka and threw it on. I quickly buttoned it up, it was difficult with cold and shaking hands but I managed. I instantly felt warmer, not by much, but that would change once I had it on longer. I wondered what the fire benders wanted me for. I couldn't help but be scared. I rubbed the blue stone in the necklace that Gran Gran gave me for my birthday last year. That always comforted me in times like this.

***Zuko's POV; 11 years***

I sat by the pond outside the palace walls as I tossed smooth, round rocks into the pond. I watched them splash and create ripples and sometimes skip across the surface. I made sure to stay clear of the turtle ducks, it took a whole week for the bite the mother gave me to heal, and it hurt like heck. I sighed. I had no idea where my mom was. Actually...I had no idea where anybody was right now. Well...except for Azuela, she was leaning against the palace wall. She walked over to me, playing with a bit of blue fire in her hand. She was already almost a master, and let me tell you-- that fire is HOT.

"Hey Zuzu, guess what?" she asked grinning as she tossed the blue flame between hands.

I gritted my teeth at the much hated nickname. "Go away Azuela," I said through my teeth.

"I guess you don't want to know what I can provide,"

"No, I don't,"

"You don't want to know what the Naval Rank brought back with them from the South Pole?"

"I could care less,"

"Well it's a little girl," she said turning away to leave.

I looked up surprised. "What?"

"I thought you didn't want to know," she said turning her head back to me, her dark hair falling over her shoulder.

"Tell me!"

Azuela grinned. "I'm not entirely sure about all of this, what they are planning, but she's apparently the last water bender of the South Pole, I'm not sure what there doing with her at the moment," she explained.

I gave her a quizzical look.

She shrugged before turning her head away from me. "Just telling you what I heard," she said before walking away.

I walked through the palace walls, thinking over all the Azuela told me. It didn't make any sense. I heard voices coming from the hallway ahead of me. I ran forward, my shoes slapping hard against the red metal floor. I stopped at the end of the hallway and peeked out behind the corner. I saw a small group of soldiers-including a general- and a little girl in between two tall men. The little girl wore a blue dress and had a blue coat hung over her arm. It's probably warmer in the Fire Nation then she's used to. She had long dark brown hair and wore a pretty blue necklace. Just then my mother ran up to the general.

"What are you doing with this little girl!?" she demanded.

"Lady Ursa," the General bowed. "I was just taking her to the prison hold while I discuss a future idea with the Firelord," he explained.

"You were going to put her with a bunch of criminals!?" my mother asked appalled.

"She's a water bender, a formidable enemy, Lady Ursa-"

"She's a little girl!" she cried.

"It;s still the same,"

"No, I won't let you, I'll take her, you can go discuss you _ideas_ with my husband," she snapped before taking the girl's hand and stomping off. She whispered something to the little girl that I couldn't hear.

The general grumbled something to himself before walking off. The soldiers scattered.

"Prince Zuko," they nodded as they passed me. Some just ignored me and walked past.

***Katara's POV; seven years***

When the soldiers led me through the Fire Nation palace, my first thought was: _Wow, their taking me to the palace?_ and my next thought was: _Wait...their taking me to the palace!?! _and I started fretting after that. While we walked through a hallway a dark haired lady ran up to the mean man. She began to talk to him, she seemed angry. I saw a pale skinned, dark haired boy peaking out from behind a corner, watching the scene unfold. He looked a little older then me.

The next thing I knew that that the lady-whose name I found out was Ursa- held me by the hand and led me throughout the palace.

"It's okay little one, I won't hurt you," she whispered kindly to me.

I wondered if she was a fire bender. I found out she was the Firelord's wife, I didn't get how the wife of someone so evil and wicked, could be so nice...

"I have a girl about your age, how old are you?" she asked as we entered a room.

"I'm seven, but I'll be turning eight in a little while Ma'am," I informed her.

"Oh, were going to have to celebrate it then, my daughter just turned eight, your just love Fire nation parties, I think," she said looking through a trunk of what appeared to be cloths.

She turned her head to look at me. "You can sit," she said before turning back to the trunk.

I looked around, my eyes falling upon the large bed. I climbed up on it and sat down, my legs dangling off the edge. After a few moments kind Ursa turned around holding a red dress with a low collar, sleeves that came down to about my elbow, and a flame pattern embroidered around the collar and end. It was really pretty.

"This use to be my daughters..." Ursa trailed.

I nodded as she helped me into the dress. She was very kind, like my mother...my mother. A tear fell down my cheek as I thought of her.

"Do you have a name?" Ursa asked as she straitened out the dress.

"Katara," I said.

"That's pretty, do you have a family?" she asked tossing my cloths in the fireplace to burn in the fire.

I nodded. "My brother Sokka isn't a bender, he's at the South Pole with my Gran Gran, my Papa's away at war and my Mama...she was killed by that mean man..." I sobbed, tears running down my face.

Ursa looked at me with a distraught look on her face. She sat down and pulled me on her lap. "It'll be okay," she said running a hand through my hair.

"You talk about your daughter a lot, will I be able to meet her?" I asked, still sobbing.

Ursa laughed. "I'm not sure if you'll want to, she's a lot like her Father and more, Azuela's a strange girl, even though she's closer to your age I think you'll like my son more, Zuko's more like me..." she trailed. "This is a spare bedroom, you can stay in it if you like, there's a brush on the dresser over there...I'll bring you some food later if you like," she added with a warm smile.

I nodded. "Yes please,"

Ursa nodded and walked over to the door, closed it behind her, and locked it from the outside.

I sighed and dropped off the bed and walked over to the tall dresser. I reached up and picked up the brush. I put the pretty brush to my hair.

***Unknown POV***

Ursa made her way to the throne room where Ozai and the general who killed little Katara's mom were speaking. Ursa stood by the door and pursed her lips together impatiently as she waited for them to finish discussing ideas. When they were finished the general bowed and left the room, slightly nodding to Ursa as he passed her. Ursa walked up to her husband where he was surrounded by fire.

"Put the fire out for Gods sake Ozai!" Ursa said.

The Firelord muttered something to himself and the fire slowly receded until there was no more.

"What was that about?" Ursa asked noting the discussion between him and his general.

"That's none of your business Ursa," he said smoothly.

Ursa opened her mouth to speak but Ozai held up and hand and shushed her. "You seem to be pushing your power a bit too far don't you think? Your sticking your nose is places it doesn't belong,"

"But-"

Ozai cut her off again. "My general told me you took the last water bender from him?"

"Yes, He can't treat a child like that, Katara is-" She stopped speaking when Ozai spoke.

"So now your treating the enemy as your child?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"She's a little girl Ozai!" Ursa cried appalled.

"I think it's time for you to leave," Ozai said coolly.

"Tell me what you have in store for her!"

"She's the perfect weapon, a water bender in the Fire Nation Ranks, perfect, I really need to rank up that general," he said mostly to himself.

Ursa's mouth fell open. "Your going to use her!? She's a person Ozai! She can die out there! She's not a toy you can experiment with! I forbid you to do that!" she cried enraged.

"A _woman_ can't tell me what to do, leave now, and when I say leave, I mean forever,"

Ursa's jaw fell open. "Your banishing me?"

Ozai made a _tsk tsk_ noise and called soldiers out to escort a curse flinging Ursa away.

**Oooooh! I like this chapter. You? **


	3. Authors Note

**~Authors Note~**

**OK, I'm sorry for taking so long to get a new chappie for this story. I am not in anyway going to abandon this story anytime soon. I love it too much! It's one of my best in my opinion. I'm on a small stand still right now, negotiating what to do. I also have other things to type, and with finals coming up...*sigh* I'll try to get onto this as quick as possible. On the meanwhile, why don't you read other things, or help me decide for a new title for this?**

**Magnetic?**

**or**

**Playing with Fire?  
**


	4. Chapter 3

**Ok! I'm happy! I know where to go with this fanfic now! I thought of a chapter! And now I can relieve you of your really long wait! I know I hate it when I have to wait. I don't know how long it'll be until I get them to their normal ages though. A few chapters maybe. I have to get Zuko and Katara better acquainted. **

_**Disclaimer: i own nothing! Nothing I tell you! But my pairings and plotlines!**_

**Thank you for all the favoriting and and story alerting and reviewing I'm getting for this fanfiction! (okay, maybe not the reviewing, lol) It makes a girl happy. ^^ WritersWand loves you all!**

**And a kind hand to my readers that reviewed: **

**Tigerlily: 'tis fine, be madder at me for taking so long to post chappies! Yeah, I wasn't so sure about her name. I spelled it right in chapter one! What? I don't get what you mean, unknown POV is third person? Oh...never mind, I forgot what I had in mind there. I do too. Well, they meet REALLY soon. Personally I don't like this chapter much but lets see your opinion as your read on.**  
**Magnetic? Yeah, I like that too, I like them both, make sure to vote on the poll on my profile...if you can...Thank you!**

**WritersWand**

**Opposites Attract**

**Chapter 3**

**Katara**

A soft knock on the door echoed throughout the room as the fire crackled in the fireplace. I jumped off the bed and brushed down my new, red, flame patterned dress. I went to open the door but withdrew my hand when I remembered something Lady Ursa had told me.

_'Do not open the door for anyone unless I say it is me, you don't know if that person will take kindly to you being here or not' I nodded my understanding as she turned on her heel and left the room, closing and locking the door behind her. _

Her voice rippled through my ears. Her pale face, long dark hair, and kind, dark, eyes forever sketched into my memory. You could say she was kind of like a second mother to me.

"Will you please open the door for me Katara? Lady Ursa told me to give you some supper," said a feminine voice from behind the door. It sounded strained, aged, but kind.

I decided to trust her. I twisted the knob but the door was locked.

"Oh, almost forgot, the Lady slipped me a key," she said as a golden key slid under the door. I picked it up, unlocked the door and then set it on the table beside me. I opened the door and shut it quietly after a pale skinned, white haired kindly, elderly looking woman entered.

"Where's Lady Ursa?" I asked after she set the tray of food on the table by the end of the bed.

The woman sat on the end of the bed as I stood by the door. She sighed. "I'm not sure if you will be seeing her anytime soon, maybe not ever again, if my hunches are right she was banished because of you," she told me.

"Because of me?" I asked confused.

"The Lady helped you, a waterbender, a traitor, the Firelord doesn't take kindly to that. Take it as a token of gratitude, bless the girls heart," she explained, putting it simply.

I nodded, a little sad. She got herself banished, for me! and she had two kids to take care of too!

"Lady Ursa asked me to take care of you. She told me you seem like a good little girl and that she thinks that you will grow up to be a wonderful, beautiful woman, My name is Ozana, I wouldn't leave the room for a bit, until things cool down, if you need anything hang this outside your door," She handed me a white lotus flower.

I nodded as she sighed and left the room. I didn't get what the lotus flower symbolized, if it represented anything at all, but I set it on the bedside table anyways. I sat on the bed and picked up the tray. I set it on the bed and pulled my feet up onto the bed. I was barefoot. I crossed my legs as I pulled the tray closer to me. There was a bowl of steaming soup, part of a loaf of bread, and a tea cup of...milk. How did she know I hated tea? Maybe she suspected it because I'm only seven and most children don't like tea? Must be a grown up thing I guess. Maybe I'll like it when I'm older. I picked up the bread, it making a loud crunching sound. Bread was a deliciously back in the Southern Water Tribe. We sometimes didn't even get it once a year! We only were able to eat some when the Traders came back from the Earth Kingdom with it and other trade items. Gran Gran once told me you could tell how bread was by the sound it made. That loud crunch must have met that bread was good. I say was because I already finished it. After eating such good bread I quickly drained the bowl of soup. It was hot and it burned my tongue and throat but it was still delicious. I quenched by burning throat with the cold milk. The soup wasn't spicy so the hot sensation went away after I drained the cup if it's milk. I placed the tray back on the table and fell back onto the soft bed wondering what there was to do in this room.

**Zuko**

I lay in my canopied bed in my red room. My bed was made and I lay on top of the covers as i was careful not to mess up Ozana's work. My head and upper body rested against my beds numerous red pillows. Ozana was by far my favorite servant. She was almost like a second mom to me. Azula didn't like her much. No wonder why. You could day Ozana was Azula and my caretaker. She does a lot for us. Azula said she'll be doing a lot more since of what happened last night, I don't get that. I don't believe her. Azula always lies. I sat on my bed thinking, just thinking. One memory kept creeping into my thoughts, I couldn't not think about it, wonder about it. What if Azula had been telling the truth...?

_I lay in my bed on a day much like this one but I was a little younger. Azula skipped into my room._

_In a singsong voice she sang: "Dad's going to kill you,"_

_I sat up in my bed,messing up Ozana's careful work,surprised. "What! Where did you here this?" I asked, but I already knew. She eavesdropped on private conservations, that's Azula for you. _

_"I overheard Father and Grand-Father speaking,something about Father stealing Uncle's throne and he must be taught a lesson: 'you must lose your first born son just as Iroh had,'" Azula's imitation of Grand Father's voice wasn't half-bad._

_My eyes grew wide as I spoke in a shaky voice. "Dad wouldn't do that to me,"_

_Azula laughed as she skipped out of my room, her message has been received, her job is done._

_I sank down into my pillows, hand on my arms, eyes wide..._

I bit my lip. This happened a few years or so ago and nothing of the such has happened. My life hasn't been close to death at all, unless you count being bitten by a turtle-duck. I wonder sometimes.

I jump and almost fall out of the bed, startled, when Ozana walked in.

"Zuko? You seem...tense," she said softly, holding a tray.

I shook my head. "I'm fine,"

Ozana didn't seem convinced but she nodded and handed me my breakfast tray.

"Where's Mom?" I asked. Normally she takes my tray from Ozana and delivers it to me herself, if I'm not up already, this being one of those days.

Ozana bit her lip and I knew she was hiding something from me. "Not sure, maybe she's busy, overslept, How am I supposed to know! I'm not her babysitter!" she snapped, though I know she was lying through her teeth.

I nodded and bit into my apple. Ozana turned and left. When I finished I left my tray on my bed and ran down the red hallways to my Father's throne room. My feet pounded loudly against the metal floors and my reflection shone in the shiny floors. The walls were draped in Fire Nation emblems. I finally reached the red throne room. Anyone who's new to the palace would find it annoying, so much red! My Father sat up in his high throne chair at the end of the long room, surrounded by tall walls of fire, giving him the dark, ghostly silhouette of my Dad. I walked closer, just close enough so we could hear each other but not so the fire would be too hot.

"Where's mom?" I asked.

He didn't answer, but just stared at me coldly. My eyes grew as I ran out of the room and through the hallways until I found Ozana.

My eyes must have been teary or something because she stopped and her voice was soft and sweet. "What's wrong Zuko?" she asked.

"Where's mom?" I choked out between ragged breaths and contained sobs.

Ozana sighed. "I guess you would find out anyways, better me then someone else...Zuko, your mother's been banished,"

We stood there in silence for a few moments as my jaw dropped, my eyes grew and I felt as if my whole world fell to pieces, melt, blew away. "W-Why?" I stuttered.

"For being herself," Ozana said simply before leaving.

I wanted to know more but didn't bother to ask. I could bring myself to ask anything more. Instead I walked over to a wall and slumped against it. My mother had been banished. One of the few people who actually cared about me. Probably the only person who cared about me who had influential power. Now that mom's gone, will Dad kill me? With her out of the way will he? I bit my lip. I didn't want to die. Then I remembered something.

Uncle.

Uncle wouldn't let me die. If he was still around I'll be safe...right? I was so confused, but I decided this was weak and...well...a little girly, yes, I said it. I stood up and wiped the tears from my eyes, fortunately no more fell. I started walking to Uncle's Quarters, I needed someone to talk to at the moment.

**A Few Weeks Later**

I was walking through the hallways, a little on edge. I glanced over my shoulder repetitively, not being able to calm myself. 'Zuko it's fine, everything's alright,' I kept telling myself as I walked. Remembering Uncle's voice was calming too. I was walking down a hallway when something caught my eye. I stopped abruptly and turned to face the door. A white lotus flower lay positioned on the door knob. I gently picked it up by one of it's delicate white petals and held it in my palm. I looked at the pretty flower confused. Lotus flowers didn't grow anywhere near the palace. I wanted to know what it represented, if anything at all.

I decided to go into the room. I silently opened the unlocked door. Inside the fully lit room was...Uncle and a little girl. Uncle sat on the end of the bed and the girl sat about a foot away. Her eyes were teary and red rimmed them. She must have been crying, but not anymore. She laughed at something Uncle said. The girl looked up and saw me. Tears formed in her eyes but none fell. Why did she want to cry when she saw me? Uncle saw me as well and stood up. He said something to the girl softly and she nodded. Uncle walked up to me and gently took the lotus flower from my hand and placed it on the table by the door. He nodded for me to leave, i did, he followed, shutting the door softly behind him. I looked at him confused.

"The little water bender," he said softly.

"The last one of the Southern Water Tribe?" I asked, remembering what Azula told me a while back.

Uncle nodded. "It's her eighth birthday today,"

I nodded, feeling resent towards the girl. Sad cause no one came to her on her birthday? Come on.

Uncle shook his head, somehow reading my face. Was it that easy to read? He's always said I'm a open book, Azula a closed one, whatever that meant.

"She has a reason to be very sad, her birthday made her remember that she was taken away from everything she knew, her tribe, her family, her brother Sokka, her Father went away to fight in the War, her mother was killed by the general who brought her here..." Uncle trailed.

I nodded, understanding, a rush of pity and emotion flooded through me, directed towards the little girl in that little room. She was only eight-Azula's age but she doesn't count- and this is her first birthday away from everything she loves and cares about.

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Katara," Uncle told me.

Katara...that's a pretty name.

"Zuko...I want to ask you to do a small favor for me," Uncle began.

"What?" I asked.

"Well not precisely for me," Uncle gave a little grin.

Oh no...

.

"I want you to bring Katara out of the room, show her around, show her the Fire Nation can be kind, treat her as a friend, a sister, but better then you treat Azula," Uncle smiled at his little joke.

My jaw dropped. "That's not fair!" I whined.

Uncle laughed. "What's not fair?"

**hehe, this gets so much better. I think I may just do a chapter, maybe too, of them at this age before I switch to fourteen and seventeen, normal ages for the show.**

**Oh boy...Zuko doesn't know half of it. lol But, you guys don't know half of what's going on in my mind either, XD.  
**


	5. Chapter 4

**Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry SORRY!**

**I'm so sorry I took so long to update! but I have a chapter and here it is (right after I finish typing it, lol)**

**well thank you to all my readers that story alerted, favoriters, reviewers...**

**speaking of reviewers...**

**Supergirl1987: Thank you! ^^**

**Gelphie wicked: ^^ thanks!**

**zutara4evr: ^^ thanks. haha, I know right?**

**You-Made-mysoul-Black: Well here it is! Thanks!**

**ZutaraforeverKataangnever: OK I WILL! haha. I was thinking about that earlier today that I like this slightly better than the actual show. O.O amazing right? thanks. **

**WritersWand**

**Opposites Attract**

**Chapter 4**

**Zuko**

It's been a short six years since I first met Katara, six years since Uncle first told me to spend time with her. I did what I was told, not 24/7 but she was with me most of the time, she still slept in that little room at the end of the hall though. I admit-she was a nice little girl, she still is a nice girl even if she is now almost a woman herself. She's sweet, caring, funny, in a way she kind of reminds me of my mom, who I miss very much. I try to hide it from Katara, who seems very emotional, but she always seems to figure out when I'm sad. The good thing is that she's always able to cheer me up. She always has been able to do that. That's one of the reasons I love her so much. No- when I say love I mean as in friends. That water bender's my best friend. I love her so.

.

_I sit on my bed in my room. The doors are closed and locked, the windows are closed and the blinds are drawn, even the vents are closed. I don't want people to see me like this, but I have to let it out. I'm a fourteen year old guy for crying out loud! I can't be seen crying, weeping, and acting like a girly baby. That would just give my father more reasons in which whether or not he should kill me. _

_ I sit on my bed with my arms around my knees as tears well up in my eyes. It's been three years since I've last seen my mom, since she was banished. Give me a break alright? Everyone has these kinds of times in their lives right? Then I heard a soft knock on my bedroom door. _

_ "Go away," I said trying to keep a firm, steady voice, hoping it didn't break, that a sob didn't escape. Neither happened, good. _

_ "Zuko it's only I-Katara- will you please let me in?" came the ten year old girl's voice from behind the door. _

_ I sighed and stood up. I walked over to the door, wiping tears from my eyes. I opened the door and there stood Katara, a soft smile on her face. I smiled back. I liked seeing her smile, it wasn't pitiful, full of pity or anything like that, but it did always make me feel better, no matter what. I walked back to my bed and sat on the edge so my feet rested on the floor. Katara climbed up next to me, her legs dangled off the edge of the bed. _

_ "What's wrong Zuko?" she asked._

_ I shook my head. "Nothing really,"_

_ "Zuko come on, you locked yourself I your room, you were crying weren't you?" she asked softly._

_ I sighed. "I was just sad, angry, about my mom, about how my father could just go and banish her like that…" I trailed; I felt my hands growing warm. _

_ Katara bit her lip but said nothing._

_ I went on expressing to Katara how I felt about all this. As I went on I felt the flames in my hands grow bigger. I cupped my hands together._

_ Katara bended the water out of the pitcher on my nightstand and placed it gently against my flaming hands, the fire sizzled and went out. Katara slowly put the water back in the pitcher and held my warm hands in her cool ones. _

_ "No more fire Zuko," she said softly._

_ Then she hugged me, and I hugged her back. _

_._

I smiled as I reflected back on that sweet memory. Katara really could cheer me up, it was easy for her.

_ "No more fire Zuko," _

She had said that. That became one of our favorite sayings, she says that a lot now, not all the time, but when it is needed. Now, if I remember corrected, Azula hated that saying. Actually, I don't know if it was that saying precisely, ore more just Katara being here, Katara being able to speak of her own free will. Azula's always hated her guts. Ever since the first day they met…

_I sat by the small ponds outside the palace walls. Katara sat in the grass besides me. We watched the turtle-ducks swim. Katara was eight, I was eleven. I had only known Katara for a few days but I had grown to like her, it was a strong feelings. We weren't best friends yet but…how would you describe it? Accomplices? Alliances? Yeah, something like that. _

_ Azula played with her friends on the opposite side of the ponds. Ty lee stood upside down on her hands. She noticed something and pointed towards us, saying something happily that I couldn't hear. Ty lee seemed to like Katara at first but when Azula expressed dislike towards her so did Ty lee. Mai didn't need Azula's influence, she didn't like Katara from the start either. I don't know why, it's not like Mai's an evil demon like Azula. I still don't know why she doesn't like Katara._

_ They walked over to us. "Why are you hanging out with the filthy water bender?" Azula asked me, her nose scrunched up. _

_ I shrugged, but before I could speak Katara spoke up._

_ "Lady Ursa did say I wouldn't like you much, even though I wanted to meet you, she said I'll like Zuko more cause he's more like her and your more like your father, and everyone except your nation knows he's evil," little Katara pointed out. _

_ Ty lee giggled and Azula shot her a glare. Ty lee shut up. _

_ Azula pursed her lips together in annoyance. "Mother always did like her outcasts, so she went to go join them herself, your both traitors," Azula said to Katara, grinning. _

_ That struck hard. I jumped up and punched towards Azula. A blast of fire shot towards Azula. I didn't use fire much so it did surprise her but she still managed to roll out of the way. _

_ "You want to fight brother?" she asked me. _

_ I nodded, feeling the anguish build up inside of me. Azula couldn't bend lightning yet, neither wad her fire blue yet, but she was a well trained fire bender. Perhaps even better than I was when I was only eleven, no, not perhaps, totally better. Katara, Mai, and Ty lee backed up as Azula and I advanced towards each other. _

_ I aimed a kick at her and fire shot towards her. She easily dodged out of the fires path. The battle didn't last long. I soon recovered my senses and didn't want to fight my little sister anymore. Azula didn't want to stop though. She aimed a blow at my unguarded face and I fell…_

_._

Katara must have done water bending or something or I may have ended up worse than I am now. The water bending she did may have ceased the pain because I don't remember the pain being that bad, but it did hurt, A lot. That was how I ended up with this scar. The remembrance of the burn Azula gave me. The scar my little sister gave me. She got in trouble, but the punishment wasn't too bad, she's always been Dad's favorite. The scar is around my left eye. The left corner of my eye was slightly damaged, my vision wasn't affected by it though, and Katara may have had a part in that. My scar is two different colors, a pinkish color closer to my eye and red around that.

You know what? I got in trouble as well, for starting the fight with my sister, even though she didn't get hurt at all. I liked to believe this was all my sisters doing but Katara thinks my father had something to do with it. I wouldn't know.

.

I was seventeen, Katara was fourteen. Father had called me to his room to speak with me. I don't know why. I walked down the hall until I approached the room. Katara walked by my side.

"What do you think this is about?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know,"

I opened the door and we slipped in. I walked down the room until I reached the end of the room where my father sat on his chair surrounded by his tall walls of fire. Katara went to stand against the wall on the side of the room, hidden slightly by a pillar.

"Zuko, I have a task for you," he said.

"Yes?" I asked.

"You know the Fire Nation killed the entire race of Air Nomads correct?" he asked.

"Correct," I nodded.

"You know that the Avatar was an Air Nomad and if he may be alive he could be a strong threat to my reign?"

I nodded my understanding.

"I would like you to find the Avatar, bring him to me so he cannot be any possible threat. He would be an old man Zuko, but he would be highly trained in Air bending and possibly the other elements, I would like you to do this _oh so important_ task for me," he explained.

"I will Father," I said. I really would. People say the Avatar is dead but it would be a way to prove myself to my father, to prove I'm not worthless, so my father would have a reason not to kill me.

He nodded. "Good. I will supply your ship and troops, you may bring two other persons as you wish,"

I nodded.

"Now, go and find who you will bring!" he instructed.

"Oh, but Father, I already know," I said.

.

**Third Person POV, Ozai**

.

Ozai looked down at the boy who was his son. "Oh? Who do you have in mind?" he asked.

"Well first it would be Uncle," Zuko began.

Ozai nodded, a small smile coming to his lip as he glanced at the water bender that hid behind a pillar at the side of the room. With his brother and Zuko out of the way he could do with her as he wished. He would train her in fighting and make her the ultimate weapon as he and his top general decided years ago. A water bender against water benders and earth benders. They wouldn't know how to act. Ozai marveled at the idea.

"And the second would be Katara," Zuko continued.

Ozai's face fell. Oh. That would just ruin everything.

.

**Katara**

.

I nodded as Zuko looked towards me. Iroh was a smart choice, a good person to pick. Zuko was wise. I guess I would be spending a lot of time with that sweet old lady cook Ozana now. Ozai was looking at me strangely so I tilted my head sideways and made a silly face, he looked away. What Zuko said next startled me and made me jump. He said my name; he wanted me to go with him, but why? It's not like I was a very talented bender or anything. Ozai shot me an angry glare and I shot him back a confused look. He rolled his eyes and looked back at Zuko.

"I'll get ready your troops, your ship leaves tonight," he said.

.

**Back to Zuko**

.

I sat on my mat of a bed in my captain's quarters, which happened to be my room as well. I smiled as that rush of memories flooded me. I was happy, happier than I've ever been in a while. Uncle was probably in his room drinking tea, maybe he even found someone to play Pai Sho with. I laughed quietly to myself. Then I heard a soft knock on my door.

"Zuko, it's I-Katara- please let me in," came a girl's voice from behind the door.

"The door's not locked Katara," I laughed.

There was a pause and then the door opened and Katara walked in carrying a tray of food that I took as dinner. I drew in a breath. I never took in how pretty Katara was before. No, not pretty, beautiful actually. She had the same kind of fire nation dress on that she always wore, but it was bigger of course. Her dark brown hair was up in a long, thick braid. The style her hair was up in wasn't familiar to me, but then, it vaguely was. I guessed it was a mix of Water Tribe and Fire Nation styles. Her light blue eyes shone in the fire light that lit the room.

"I passed the kitchens on the way to my room and the cook saw me, he told me to deliver your dinner to your room," she said placing the tray on my lap. "He also muttered something about how unwise it was of you to have a female on board, it's supposedly bad luck," she laughed. Katara fell quiet when I didn't laugh. I didn't like it when people spoke against Katara like that.

When she realized how quiet I was she spoke again. "No fire Zuko?" she asked in a whisper.

I nodded. "No fire,"

She nodded and turned to leave. I watched her body move as she walked.

"You can go get you dinner and then come back here to eat," I said when she was in the doorway.

She turned her head back to me, her braid falling over her shoulder. "Oh, but Zuko, I already ate," She gave a mischievous-I guess you can call it flirty if you want- smile before closing the door and walking off. I listened to her footsteps fade away and sighed.

**Yay! ^^ From the next chapter on I will go in line with the show, but with this plot lines twist ;) I won't do every episode though, cause really, with this plot line I can't do every episode cause I'm only doing Sokka or Aang's POV sometimes **


	6. Chapter 5

**Sorry for taking so long to update! Thank you all my readers! This first chapter that goes along with the show is dedicated to you all! this is the first to episodes but it's long...which is weird, it's only two episodes! ...I thought I would have to put a volume in a chapter...  
**

**Annaza: ^^ Thank you!  
**

**Danielle Salvatore: Ok! Thank you!**

**lalalovezutara: I know right? Thank you!  
**

**WritersWand**

**Opposites Attract**

**Book One: Water**

**Chapter Five**

**The Boy in the Ice Berg**

**...**

**The Avatar Returns**

**Sokka's POV**

**.**

Sokka stood in his fishing boat, letting the cold waters of the South Pole sway his boat back and forth as it moved with the gentle current. He stood upright in his boat holding his southern water tribe styled spear in an upright position as well, poised to strike. He's been eyeing a fish swimming around his boat for a while now. He could do it this time, he could catch that fish. He didn't need to do any of that fancy stupid magic tricks with water, he could function on his own thank you very much. His whole tribe has for seven years, since of today.

Sokka shook his head; he needn't be reminded of that. He lifted up his spear-preparing to take a stab at fish- not noticed his boat had drifted too close to an ice berg and the butt end of his spear hit the ice wall and sent small ice chunks down the back of Sokka's parka. He dropped his boat and it clattered on the wood. He yelped and scrambled around cold, causing his boat to rock and water to splash him and the inside of the boat. When he was rid of the ice he settled down with a frown on his face.

He sighed, not noticing at first that his boat had entered rapids and began racing out of control through glacier infested waters. Sokka shrieked and grabbed the oars, trying to steer the boat away from the threatening glaciers.

A huge wave formed behind him, his blue eyes widened as it rose and pushed his boat into an ice berg, causing a crack to form. Sokka stood up out of the remainders of his boat and looked around. He soon realized he was stranded and sighed.

He gathered up his things, not noticing the crack getting bigger and the whole ice berg broke away, leaving him on a small ice berg. A large round ice berg began to rise and Sokka fell to the ice, clinging to the side. When the ice berg was surfaced he stood up and looked at it awestruck. Inside it was the frozen figure of some huge beast and a…boy? A boy was frozen inside the ice berg!

Sokka jumped over small, unsteady ice bergs to get to the round one. He pulled out his water tribe war clubs and began beating at the ice. On the fifth hit the ice berg crack and broke, resulting in a bright blue column of light beaming up into the light sky. The boy faded from looking blue to normal and fell forward towards Sokka.

Sokka stretched his arms out and the boy fell in his arms. Sokka wrinkled his nose and studied him. He was pale, short, thin, and bald. He wore weird orange and yellow cloths and had a blue stripe on his head and hands. His eyes fluttered open, they were grey.

"I-I'm Aang," the weird boy stuttered.

"Well Aang, I'm Sokka," he sighed.

Aang's eyes lit up. "Want to go penguin sledding with me?" he asked excitedly.

Sokka dropped him to the ice. "No," he said simply.

Aang bounced right back up. "Aw…"

"You were frozen in an ice berg,"

"And?"

"And you want to go penguin sledding?"

Aang shrugged. "It's fun,"

"Why aren't you dead!" Sokka demanded, this was all out of reason.

"No idea," Aang said simply.

"Ok Then, I don't know about you but I need to get home," Sokka said looking for his boat but realizing that it had been destroyed. He sighed. "Great,"

Aang's eyes lit up. "I can take you home!"

Sokka raised his eyebrow. "And how will that be?"

"On my-ah-"Aang put a finger to his nose. "On my flying-ACHOO!" Aang sneezed and flew ten feet in the air, he drifted back down.

Sokka's eyes widened. "Flying achoo?" then he remembered. "You're an air bender,"

Aang shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

"We thought they were all exist, the Fire Nation killed them all,"

Aang shook his head. "Air benders are smart, they are hiding around somewhere, and they _have_ to be,"

Sokka shrugged. "Whatever you say,"

Aang scratched his head."I have to take you home on my flying bison," he said scrambling up the shattered ice berg and sliding down the other side.

"Flying what now?" Sokka asked following him. Sokka's jaw fell open when he saw the huge white beast.

Aang pet it. "There there Appa, this is only Sokka, a friend, Appa-Sokka, Sokka-Appa," Aang said introducing them.

Sokka carefully walked up to Appa. "There is NO WAY I'm riding that thing!" Just then Appa stuck out his huge pink tongue and rolled it across Sokka. Sokka yelped and jumped back, trying to get off the disgusting green slime.

"He likes you," Aang laughed.

"He tried to eat me!" Sokka cried.

Aang shrugged. "Want to get home or freeze to death in the middle of nowhere?"

Sokka opened his mouth about to say he'll rather that than eaten by a huge monster but he decided against it. He sighed and climbed into Appa's saddle.

Where Aang ever got this beast he'll never know.

.

**Katara's POV**

.

Zuko stood on the highest deck watching forward. I stood in a corner watching. Uncle Iroh walked up.

"Zuko, I'm heading to bed," he yawned.

"I'm looking for the Avatar."

Iroh sighed. "He may not even be here still, your father, grand-father, and even your great-grandfather all tried to find him and failed, I'm not trying to discourage you but get some sleep,"

Zuko shook his head.

Iroh shrugged and walked in to below deck.

I walked up to next to Zuko. "No fire?" I asked.

"No," he sighed.

I smiled. "Good,"

.

Iroh was teaching Zuko fire bending. Even I admit, he was very…edgy? Is that the word? He seemed too forceful or whatever. Zuko was getting really annoyed and frustrated. He was trying to explain to his Uncle how the Avatar was more than 100 years old and had a century to master all the elements.

"But you haven't yet mastered the basics," Iroh said simply.

"You will teach me more advanced moves!" Zuko cried, fire shooting out of his closed fists.

Iroh sighed. "Fine…as soon as I finish my roast duck," he said picking up a bowl from next to him. Zuko looked disgusted as he devoured the food, but my stomach growled. I wanted to get some food…

.

Zuko stood on the upper deck as a bright blue light shot out from a point in the distance. Uncle Iroh was sitting cross-legged on a cushion playing a game with the four elements on cards that was unfamiliar to me. A pot of jasmine tea boiled on a small fire burner, his cup sat on the table next to him.

I sat on my knees next to Iroh trying to figure out his game. I was thirsty so he let me have a small cup of his tea. It actually tasted pretty good. I can't believe I used to hate it. Maybe it's the way Iroh made it? I hear he is a good tea maker.

"Finally, at last," Zuko whispered. He turned to us. "Uncle! Do you know what this means!"

"I won't get to finish my game?" he asked.

I chuckled softly to myself.

Zuko ignored his comment. "My search has come to an end, the Avatar is near,"

"Zuko, we've been down this road before," he said taking a sip of his tea.

"Water, we've been down this water before, and it's annoyingly cold," I commented.

"It had to come from an entirely powerful source! Men! Direct a course to the light!" he ordered.

Iroh set down his last piece of his game, looking proud as the shook began to turn, causing the table to shake. My tea cup fell on my lap, causing the hot tea to spill on my dress. I cried out and jumped up. It wasn't burning, but it was hot.

Tears came to Iroh's eyes when he saw the spilt tea. "I know you're not supposed to cry over spilt tea but…it's just so sad.

.

**Sokka's POV**

Sokka walked into the shelter when Aang slept for the night.

"Aang wake up, I don't know what it's like in the air temples but we don't sleep in here,"

Aang jumped up. "Sorry," he mumbled pulling on his pants and shirt Sokka noticed the blue arrows encased almost his whole body. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"You can go get something to eat, I have to go do something," Sokka said before leaving.

.

When Sokka finally found the little boys of the tribe they were with the other children as they played in the snow, Aang even let them slide down Appa's tail.

"What are you doing!" Sokka demanded.

Everyone looked up at him wide eyed.

"Having fun," Aang answered for everyone.

"We're in the middle of a war here, you can't fight fire benders with FUN!

"You should try it sometime-wait, war? Since when?"

"How long have you been in that ice berg, did you lose some brain cells? Your clueless kid,"

Aang was about to say something when Sokka interrupted him.

"Aang go do something," he said.

When Aang left Sokka turned to the would be soldiers, right now they were ignorant kids, like Aang shouldn't be but he is. "Ok, One day our fathers will return home old but that's still a whiles away so we have plenty of time for that, but we still need to learn how to protect our-"Sokka was cut off by a raised hand. "What?" he snapped.

"I need to go pee," the little boy said.

"No,"

"But I really have to go!"

"Fine, who else has to go?"

All hands were raised.

"Fine, go,"

The boys ran to the bathroom when Aang was just coming out. "Brr, everything freezes in there," he grinned pulling up his pants.

The boys laughed and Sokka's eyes narrowed.

"Aang, I said go,"

.

**Aang's POV**

.

Aang has only been walking only for a little while. He just got off his penguin that he managed to lure in and go sledding on, but it dived into the sea so now he walked. He approached a steel ship, a Fire Nation ship encased in ice.

Work of a Water bender.

Aang grinned and flew up to the entrance. He walked in, looking around amazed. As he walked the hallways he would look into the different rooms. He flinched when he looked in a room filled with intimidating weapons.

After a while he began to grow weary and started to look for an exit. He ran forward, tripping over an invisible string which caused a gate to shut behind him.

"Oops," Aang mouthed as he stumbled forward and a signal was shot up into the sky. He quickly scanned the room for an exit, he whipped out his staff and flicked it with his wrist, its orange wings popped out. He mounted and took off.

.

**Katara's POV**

.

Zuko was looking through a telescope at something far in the distance. Iroh and I stood by his side trying to see as well. A person in yellow and orange jumped down from a ship, the ship that had sent out a signal.

"He is quite agile for his old age," Zuko noted.

"He doesn't look that old to me, quite young actually," I said, but he didn't pay attention.

Zuko turned the telescope to the right and we saw a small camp. "And I found his hiding place," he said.

"Men! Direct the ship to the Sothern Water Tribe!" Zuko ordered.

.

**Aang's POV**

.

Aang landed in the snow at the front of the village where a crowd was gathered, Sokka in the front.

"What have you done?" he asked.

Aang gulped. "I just went exploring in a fire nation trip and I accidently boobed right into a booby trap-" Sokka cut him off.

"That's forbidden!"

"I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know!"

"It released a signal and there's already a ship on the horizon, it will be here any time now!" Sokka cried.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Sokka acted like he didn't hear him. "I've always known you were a traitor, a spy, from the first blue light that emerged when I broke that ice berg, I should have never done that, Aang, I think you should go,"

Aang bit his lip and turned to leave.

"Aang!" a little girl called running over to him. "Aang I don't want you to go," she said, eyes watery.

Aang smiled sadly at the girl. "I'm sorry," he said before running forward and jumping on his staff.

.

**Sokka's POV**

.

Everyone scurried around franticly, people were scattered everywhere, as Sokka barked orders. A little boy stopped in front of him

"But-" he began.

"AND NO POTTY BREAKS!" he roared.

.

Sokka had finished rebuilding the watch tower out of snow that Aang had flew into. Annoying kid. He now was putting on armor and applying war paint, white over here, black here, and the rest grey, that stuff. When he was finished he ran to the front of the village, war clubs on his sides, and boomerang on his back, and spear in his hand.

He Was Ready.

.

**Katara's POV**

.

I stood at the top of the ship at the very front so I could see everything. Zuko on his men were on the lower decks, Iroh was sleeping. I wanted to go with Zuko but he wouldn't allow it. I wanted to fight him on that but I learned never to argue with an angry, frustrated or determined fire bender. Especially when that fire bender was Zuko Agni.

I heard a faint 'aw man' as our ship penetrated farther into the ice. I think it was a crudely made watch tower. Then I saw him.

An older boy-a little younger than Zuko- standing in the snow looking ready for a fight, right in the ship's path.

"Move Fool!" I screamed at him.

He stood his ground. The ship pushed snow ahead of it as it moved so the boy was pushed back along with the snow.

The door opened and Zuko-in full armor- walked down the platform, flanked by soldiers. The boy was on his knees. He sprang up and ran at Zuko. Zuko blocked all his attacks and grabbed his spear. He jabbed him a few times in the head before breaking the spear and tossing the pieces aside. The boy sat rubbing his head as Zuko walked towards the villagers.

"I'm here for the Avatar, I know he was here, tell me where your hiding him!" Zuko ordered. While he was talking I couldn't get over how familiar this place looked, like I've been here before.

When no one answered him he pulled an old lady from the crowd. She also looked familiar, I felt as if I was connected to her somehow. Zuko had roughly pulled her from the crowd and she was shaken up. Zuko held her by the hood of her parka. So familiar…

"He would be about this age, master of all elements!" Zuko continued, getting more frustrated by the second. Familiar…can't…place it… When they just looked at him he shoved her back into the crowd when she was caught, she seemed to be the elder, leader.

"Don't treat Gran-Gran like that! Don't you know you're supposed to treat you elders with respect!" shouted the boy from before, he now held a boomerang in his hand. Gran-Gran? Zuko turned to face him, a scowl on his face. Gran-Gran! The boy through his boomerang at Zuko. I gasped. My Gran-Gran! Zuko narrowly dodged it and it continued up towards the sky. Everything suddenly clicked as I remembered. This was my home! And was that…? My brother?

"Sokka!" I screamed.

No one heard me because Sokka's boomerang twinkled in the sky and came flying back down at Zuko. It knocked his helmet off and Zuko landed face first in the snow, the helmet landed on his butt that stuck up.

"Hello? Soilder Butthead? I think your mission just failed," Sokka joked.

Zuko straightened himself. He looked mad, no, wrong word, he was _enraged_.

Then I noticed Gran-Gran looking at me. Had she heard me yell? Her blue eyes were teary and I felt like I wanted to cry. I had to go down there, I had to join my family again, I had to! I shook my head. No Katara. What about Zuko? You can't betray him. He's not your family Katara, is he more important than your family? No, he isn't, but he needs me more.

"I'm the Avatar, fight me, not them," said a voice from below. I looked down and saw Zuko and a bald kid circling each other.

"I trained for years for this, and you're just a child," Zuko spat.

"You're just a teenager," the bald kid said.

I laughed softly. I liked this kid already.

The kid flew up and over Zuko, kicking him as he went over him. I gasped. Air bender. Zuko unleashed fire and it spread out towards the villagers. They cried out and stumbled back. The bald kid's eyes widened and he stopped.

"If I go with you will you leave these people alone?" he asked. No!

Zuko nodded. It was truthful. Zuko was a man of his word. Two soldiers grabbed Aang.

"Aang! Wait! No!" Sokka began.

The bald kid-who I took as Aang- smiled sadly. "Take care of your family Sokka," He grunted as the two soldiers pushed him forward. 'Take care of your family Sokka' He can't, I'm not there.

.

As the ship sailed away I ran down to the lower hallways. My feet echoed on the metal as I ran. I stopped at a corner and peeked around it. A soilder and Aang walked down the hallway towards me. Aang was talking.

"You've never seen an air bender huh?" he asked.

The soilder didn't answer. Aang's hands were tied so he drew in air and blew it out of his mouth at the soilder who was blew forward and rammed into the wall next to me, knocked unconscious. Aang ran past me without even seeing me. I followed after him. In the next hallway we came upon two fire benders. Aang jumped over them, snapping his bindings on their sharp helmets.

"Thanks!" he called, racing away on an air ball.

"Excuse me, pardon me," I said as I pushed by them.

I ran to where I saw Aang run and saw him peeking into a room.

"sorry," he said before closing the door and running off.

I walked over, opened the door and peeked in. Iroh lay snoring softly on a bed. "Oh," I said closing the door softly and turning away. I looked around. Where was Aang?

.

I walked around for a while through the lower decks, rooms, and hallways but I couldn't find Aang so I decided to just go up to the Upper deck. When I arrived there I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

.

**Sokka's POV**

.

Sokka paced around by the stream where his canoe lay waiting, while he wondered what to do. Gran-Gran walked up to him.

"Going after Aang?" she asked.

"I don't know,"

"You should," she said handing him a sleeping sack. Sokka grinned.

Gran-Gran stared at the canoe for a few moments before speaking. "You aren't going to catch up to a warship with a canoe,"

Sokka frowned just as Appa walked up.

"Aang's?" Gran-Gran asked.

Sokka nodded grimly.

"Take him,"

"You just love taking me out of my comfort zone don't you?"

.

Sokka lounged in the back of Appa's saddle in a lazy way as he walked. Sokka wondered how he flew, if he flew at all. With a bored tone he spoke:

"Yip Yap? Yap Yap? Yak Yak? …Yip Yip?"

Appa grunted and took off, flying high in the sky. Sokka leaned over the side of the saddle. "We're flying! We're actually flying!" he shouted.

.

They eventually came to the ship. Sokka gasped at what he saw. Aang was falling towards the sea.

"Oh no," Sokka mumbled.

He fell into the water and sank. Sokka saddened. Great, our last hope, gone. Then, all of a sudden, a column of fast spinning water shot out from the sea, revenging the ship.

.

**Katara's POV**

.

I watched Aang fall as his eyes closed and his tattoo's stopped glowing. I ran forward and caught him in my arms. He blinked, when he saw me he was in a daze.

"You alright?" I asked.

He nodded. A huge beast landed on the ship, sending soldiers running away. Sokka jumped up and began fighting them. I caught glimpse of some running at us. I set Aang on the deck and looked around. They were standing in the water. I lifted my arms, my eyes squeezed shut. When I opened them the soldiers stood frozen, I lowered my arms.

"Hey!" Sokka cried.

I looked over and saw him banging in the ice that froze his feet with his boomerang. I backed up to the hallway that led below deck. Iroh stood there as well. He nodded to me but said nothing. I nodded back.

Sokka ran to Aang. "You alright?"

"My staff…" Aang trailed.

"Got it!" Sokka said running over to the side of the ship to get it. Zuko emerged from, the side of the ship and grabbed the other end. Sokka poked him in the head hard a few times with it and he fell, but I heard him grab the anchor or something. Sokka helped Aang onto the flying beast and they took off.

I just noticed Iroh had left me to go help Zuko up. Sokka and Aang were flying away on the beast. Iroh and Zuko positioned themselves and shot a huge fireball together at them. Aang jumped up and used air bending to make the fire hit a glacier wall before flying away. Snow and ice fell from the top of it onto the ship, trapping us here.

"Men! Dig us out!" Zuko ordered. He looked over and saw them slowly unfreezing my frozen men with their fire. (I felt so proud of that)

"As soon as your done with that," he corrected himself.

**So…long enough for you? It did take a while for me to update this, so be grateful! It should be easy…since I have the show to go off of now, but it really isn't =P **


	7. Chapter 6

**So, I'll be focused on this story because I want to get the solstice episodes up on the Winter Solstice. So, this is a really long chapter, I really need to learn how to write chapters for this kind of story =-= anyways...enjoy!**

**AnnaAza: Hm. I wonder too, lol.**

**Danielle Salvatore: If you think this chapter was interesting wait until I get into better episodes, like the kissing bandit...oh wait...Katara's not in that one XD**

**CatDawg14: Thanks!**

**LoveHurtsEver: hehe, not yet darling, be patient. **

**WritersWand**

**Opposites Attract **

**Chapter 6**

**The Southern Air Temple**

**.**

**The warriors of Kyoshi  
**

***Sokka's POV: Third Person***

"Just wait until you see the Southern Air Temple Sokka, I know a lot of things can change in 100 years but I have to see for myself-Sokka?" Aang looked up confused as he jumped off of Appa. "Sokka! It's time to wake up!"  
"Temple later, sleep now," Sokka mumbled rolling over in his sleeping sack.  
Aang grabbed a stick from the ground and ran it against Sokka. "There's a prickle snake in your sleeping sack!"  
Sokka screamed and jumped up, Aang fell to the ground in a fit of laughter. Sokka mumbled to himself as he hopped away still in his sleeping sack  
.

***Katara's POV*******

Uncle Iroh, Zuko, and I walked off of Zuko's ship.  
"Uncle, I want the repairs made as quickly as possible, I don't want to be here too long," Zuko said.  
Uncle opened his mouth to speak but Zuko interrupted him:  
"Don't say his name! If anyone finds out he's here everyone will be after him! I don't want anyone in the way,"  
Get rid of any competition, I thought, smirking to myself a little.  
"Get in the way of what?" a monkey faced man said walking up.  
"None of your business!" I snapped.  
"Zhou," Uncle nodded. "We're getting our ship repaired,"  
Zhou raised an eyebrow at the ship's destruction. "And how did this happen?"  
"…You tell him Uncle…" Zuko trailed softly.  
Uncle nodded. "Uh…" he turned to Zuko."Did we crash or something?"  
"Yeah, into an Earth Kingdom ship," Zuko said.  
Zhou nodded. "Let's go into my quarters and talk over tea,"  
Zuko's eyes narrowed. "We have to leave soon," he said grinding his teeth.  
"No nephew, never refuse an offering of tea," Uncle said patting his shoulder.  
We began to walk towards the Monkey faced Commanders tent. Iroh walked behind him. "Hopefully you have Zhen Shen Tea?" he asked.  
Zuko leaned over to me. "You could stay here you know,"  
I shook my head. "I am coming Zuko,"

***Sokka's POV; Third Person***

They rode on Appa as Sokka's stomach growled. He searched through his bag,  
"Where's my food?" he asked Aang.  
"Uh…I thought it was fire fuel…" Aang said meekly.  
"That's why the flames smelled so good," Sokka mumbled.  
When the two reached the mountain Sokka followed behind Aang, shoulders slouched and very grumpy. He didn't care about anything except that he was hungry and he wanted meat.  
When they reached the top Aang seemed disappointed.  
"What's wrong?" Sokka asked not really caring.  
"I just thought there would be more people, air temples are always bustling, like kids playing airball," Aang said sadly.  
"Hm, airball, how do you play?" Sokka asked trying to make the boy feel better.  
Aang's eyes lit up.

Sokka slammed into a wall with a groan. Mental note, never play airball again. Sokka was rubbing his aching head when he saw something that made his eyes widen- a fire bender's helmet.  
"Aang, come here, I have something to show-" Sokka began before Aang spoke.  
"Yay! I won!" he cried jumping up into the air and falling back down on the foot of the cliff causing the snow under him to fall and bury the helmet. Aang drifted down to Sokka.  
"You say something?"  
Sokka sighed and shook his head. Karma.

They walked through the temple for a while until they came to a statue of an old man sitting cross-legged. Aang explained something and Sokka only half listened. When Sokka actually looked over at the boy he realized that he was daydreaming.  
"Aang, snap out of it," he said waving his hand in front of Aang's face.  
Aang shook his head. "I'm ready," he said entering the building.  
Sokka followed him, a little confused. Soon enough the hallway led to a grand door with big light blue swirls on it.  
"There's someone I need to meet in here," Aang said.  
Sokka's eyes widened. "Maybe they have food!" he ran up to the door and tried to push it open. It failed so he turned to Aang. "You wouldn't have a key would you?" he asked.  
Aang shook his head smiling. "Sokka, the key is airbending," the airbender sucked in a huge gasp of air and blew it out at the doors, they all pushed over in a steady melody and the door opened.  
"Good job Air head!" Sokka beamed as they ran in. When they entered their jaws dropped, but for different reasons. Aang walked to the millions of statues, trying to figure something out as it appeared. Sokka frowned, in a room this big there had to be food, but there wasn't. While Aang paced around Sokka stood where he was, arms crossed, annoyed. Then suddenly there was a crash behind them. Both boys jumped and dived for the cover of a tall statue. Their eyes widened at the upcoming shadow.  
"Fire bender," Sokka breathed. "He won't know what hit him,"  
As they jumped up they came face to face with a small, big eared creature.  
"Flying lemur!" Aang cried at the same time Sokka cried: "Meat!"  
They both jumped in unison and lunged at it. It's large eyes widened and it ran away. They charged after it, when it spread its wings to go faster Aang bended an air scooter and rode on it.  
"Cheater!" Sokka cried.  
Aang laughed. They emerged outside and the lemur dived over the cliff, Aang followed it doing the same. Sokka stopped at the edge, balancing himself by waving his arms for a moment.  
"Not fair!" he cried starting to climb down.

When Sokka reached the bottom he was panting and sweating heavily. That was my workout for the day, he thought. He made his way over to a large white tent.  
"You find my dinner yet?" he asked walking in. He noticed Aang kneeling on the ground sulking. Sokka walked over to him.  
"You know I wasn't really going to eat it right?" he asked. Sokka looked around. "Oh no,"  
Scorched marks and fire nation remains littered the ground, and a Skeleton of the airbender from before lay before Aang.  
Aang stood up and turned around, eyes and tattoos glowing a bright blue. He rose up, a tornado forming around him. Sokka stumbled backwards out of the way. What was he supposed to do? He knew he had to stop this but how? He bit his lip.  
"Aang! Stop!" He screamed. The boy didn't make any response whatsoever. Stupid Avatar. Then he remembered something.  
"AANG! WHAT WOULD GIATSO THINK!" he screamed over the wind.  
Aang seemed to freeze as the wind faded and Aang began to fall. Sokka ran over to him and caught him in his arms so he wouldn't get hurt.  
Aang's eyes fluttered. "T-thanks Sokka,"  
"Welcome," he said dropping Aang to the ground.  
Aang jumped up. "Really, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't know what would have happened,"  
There was awkward silence after that.  
Then Sokka spoke. "Aang, I know all your friends and family were murdered, but it's not all gone, we're your family, Appa and me I mean,"  
Aang nodded and grinned. Then his eyes lit up at something behind Sokka. "Momo!"  
Sokka turned around. "That's meat's name?"  
Aang nodded. "I named him, now he's part of the family,"  
Sokka groaned. "Great, more pets,"

**Katara's POV***

Uncle Iroh and I sat at a small table, Zuko stood behind us as Zhou stood in front of a map as he explained so war or conquering tactic that I found confusing and ruthless. My tea cup sat on the table untouched as Iroh drank his. As Zuko and Zhou spoke Uncle Iroh got up and wandered around the tent. He bumped into something causing it to fall.  
"Sorry," he said meekly.  
"Prince Zuko, if you have any ounce of loyalty left you would tell me if you know anything about the Avatar," Zhou asked.  
Zuko paused. "I don't, like you said, he's probably dead,"  
Zhou sighed as they began to talk once again. They stopped when a handful of Zhou's soldiers burst in.  
"Commander! Zuko's men told us under interrogation that he had the Avatar under captivity but he let him escape!" they informed Zhou.  
Zuko lost control and kicked the table that Uncle Iroh-he sat back down-and I sat at causing it to fall and the tea to spill.  
"More tea please," Uncle Iroh beamed trying to be optimistic.

Zhou walked back into the tent where the three of us sat in chairs, guarded.  
"My ships are nearly ready, once we set off you will be allowed to go," he informed us.  
"Why? Are you afraid we will get to him before you? Cause I will," Zuko scowled.  
Zhou laughed. "I have dozens of fleets at my command, while your just a banished prince whose father does not even love him, all you have is a retired general and a traitor,"  
"Hey!" I snapped springing up.  
Zhou ignored me. I pursed my lips together and sat back down. I wanted water real bad right now.  
"Your wrong, Once I bring him the Avatar he will restore my honor and return me to my rightful throne," Zuko said, his voice quavering.  
"If your father really wanted you back he would have you back, Avatar or no Avatar," Zhou taunted him. "Face it, your father see's you as a disgrace, you have that scar for proof,"  
Zuko sprang up. "Maybe you'll want one to match!" he spat in the commanders monkey shaped face.  
"Are you challenging me?"  
"Yes! Agni Kai! Tonight!"  
"Alright," he said leaving, probably to get ready.  
Uncle Iroh stood up. "Zuko, do you remember the last time you challenged a master?"  
Zuko nodded. "I remember perfectly,"

"Remember Zuko, your basics," Iroh told Zuko.  
We stood at the side of the arena as Zuko and Zhou got ready to fight.  
"I won't let him win," Zuko said.  
The fight began.  
"This will be over quick," Zhou mused.  
They faced off. Zuko unleashed a fury of attacks with Zhou on the defensive. Their abdominal and arm muscles glimmered with sweat already. Probably from the heat and the work out. Then Zhou began using his own moves. It was quite scary actually. All the fire…it was so dangerous and hurtful, not like water, which was pleasant and healing, most of the time. Zuko had to switch to defensive.  
"The basics Zuko! Make him lose his root!" Uncle Iroh coasted him.  
Zhou got Zuko to the ground as my eyes widened, fearing for Zuko. Then Zuko did some amazing footing and the prince got the commander on the ground.  
"Do it," Zhou spat.  
Zuko unleashed a stream of fire and I closed my eyes.

I opened them and saw a scorched mark on the ground next to Zhou's head.  
Zuko missed. Purposely.  
"Your father raised a coward," Zhou spat.  
"I swear, next time you cross me I won't hesitate," Zuko warned him turning away.  
He started walking away when Zhou jumped up and unleashed fire at Zuko while his back was turned. Uncle ran up and directed the fire away from them.  
Zuko scowled and turned back angrily.  
I ran up to Zuko and held his arms to keep him back. "No fire Zuko," I whispered in his ear.  
Zhou laughed. "The Prince needs his little girlfriend to hold him back,"  
Zuko scowled.  
"So this is how Commander Zhou acts under defeat, Tsk. Disgraceful. My nephew acts more honorable under banishment," Iroh said before we left. "Thank you for the tea, it was delicious," he added.  
"Did you really mean that Uncle?" Zuko asked after we were out.  
"Yes, haven't I told you I really love Zhen Shen Tea?"

**_The Warriors of Kyoshi_**

***Katara's POV*  
**.  
I knelt bored next to the table where Zuko meditated, candles were on the table, the flames steady as Zuko controlled his breathing. I like when Zuko was this way, it was nice, calm, but I have to admit, it was pretty boring. I looked over when I saw the door creak open and Uncle Iroh's head peek in. He opened the door just enough so her could slip through.  
"The only reason you should be interrupting me is if you have news on the Avatar," Zuko said softly.  
"I do have news but I'm not sure if you'll like it,"  
Zuko sighed. "You once told me keeping a level head was a sign on a great leader, tell me, I promise I can take it,"  
"OK. We have no idea where he is,"  
The flames burst, spreading out as Zuko jumped up. "What?" he yelled.  
"So much for that," I mumbled.  
Iroh held out a map about to speak.  
"Let me see that!" Zuko snapped grabbing the map from his uncle.  
Waving his fan in front of his face Uncle spoke. "He's impossible to track down,"  
"How am I supposed to find him Uncle? He's obviously is a master of evasive maneuvering,"  
I sighed, leaning in to see the map. "Maybe he's looking for something," I suggested. Ha, a bit of feminine influence goes a long way.

***Sokka's POV: Third Person*  
**.  
"You have no idea where your going do you?" Sokka asked, looking at a map.  
"Well I know it's near water," Aang said looking back from where he sat steering Appa. Momo sat on his shoulder.  
Sokka looked out at the endless ocean surrounding them. "I guess we're getting close then,"  
Aang received something from Momo and turned to face Sokka better. "Look Sokka!" he cried doing some airbending move.  
"Cool," Sokka mumbled.  
"You didn't even look!"  
"Whatever," Sokka shrugged.

Aang landed Appa on some random island in the middle of nowhere.  
Sokka groaned. "We just made a pit stop yesterday; shouldn't we get some more flying in before we set up camp? At this rate we won't get to the North Pole until spring,"  
"But Appa's tired already, right Appa?" Aang asked nudging Appa. Appa let out a loud yawn, fake of course.  
"Yeah, very convincing, but it's better not to argue with a ten times magical monster,"  
Aang's eyes lit up as he gasped. "This is why we're here! The elephant koi!" Aang said pointing to a giant fish that leapt out of the water. "And I'm going to ride it," he said stripping to his underwear. He dived into the sea and jumped three feet in the air. "Cold!" he shrieked. Sokka rolled his eyes. Aang jumped on a fish. He laughed and waved at them. Sokka stood with his arms crossed, unimpressed. Momo jumped up and down waving his arms. Seriously? The fish was doing all the work!  
Suddenly a huge shadow started following Aang's fish. Sokka's eyes widened. Something was in the water. Aang was in trouble.  
"Aang you have to get out of there!" Sokka screamed, waving his arms.  
Aang took it as praise, laughed and waved. Idiot! The fish flipped Aang off its back and into the water. This is where Aang noticed the black sea monster. Aang screamed and jumped up, running on top of water to shore. The monster splashed and Aang went sprawling into a tree.  
"I'm fine!" Aang cried, jumping up and pulling on his clothes.  
"Ok! It's time to go now!" Sokka said rubbing his hands together. Somebody grabbed them and everything went black as they were tied up and blind folded.  
"Or we could stay a while," Sokka squeaked.

"You have some explaining to do," An elderly masculine voice said.  
"And if you don't answer all of our questions we're throwing you back into the water with the Unagi," a strong, youthful, feminine voice said.  
"Show yourself cowards!" Sokka cried.  
The blindfolds were ripped off and Sokka looked around.  
"Who are you? Where are the men that ambushed us?" Sokka demanded.  
"There were no men! We ambushed you!" said the girl from before, she was about Sokka's age and pointed at them furiously. "Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"  
Sokka realized they were tied to a pole. He leaned forward. "wait a minute, there is no way a bunch of girls ambushed us," Sokka grinned looking back at Aang.  
The leader girl walked forward and grabbed Sokka's collar. "A bunch of girl's huh? The Unagi's eating well tonight!" she spat.  
"It's my fault, I shouldn't have came here, I just wanted to ride the elephant koi," Aang said sullenly.  
"How do we know you're not fire nation spies!" the old man from before demanded. "Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way,"  
Aang's eyes lit up. "This islands named after Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!"  
"Ha! How could you possibly know Kyoshi? She was born here 400 years ago, she's been dead for centuries!"  
"I know her because I'm the Avatar," Aang said looking down.  
"That's impossible, the Avatar was an airbender that disappeared a 100 years ago," the girl said.  
"That's me!" Aang said brightly.  
"Throw the imposters to the Unagi!" the old man ordered.  
The girl's approached them, drawing their fans.  
"Aang do some airbending," Sokka said out of the corner of his mouth.  
Aang leapt out of the ropes, over the statue of Kyoshi and to the ground. The crowd gasped.  
"It's true, you are the Avatar," the old man breathed.  
"Yeah! Now check this out!" Aang said doing that airbending trick from before. The crowd cheered and Sokka rolled his eyes.

*Katara's POV*  
.

Iroh, Zuko, and I sat around a small table for dinner. As the waiter set the fish down he said something to Zuko softly that I didn't quite catch,  
"The Avatar's on Kyoshi Island!" Zuko cried standing up. He turned to Iroh. "Uncle! Ready the Rhinos! He isn't getting away from me this time," Zuko muttered walking away.  
"You going to finish that?" Iroh asked pointing to Zuko's fish.  
"I was going to save it for later!" Zuko snapped grabbing the plate.  
Iroh crossed his arms stubbornly.  
"What about me?" I asked sweetly.  
Zuko looked at me for a moment."No," Zuko said before leaving.  
I copied Uncle Iroh's position.  
***Sokka's POV: Third Person*  
**.  
Sokka, Momo, and Aang sat around a table filled with food.  
"Awesome! Desert for breakfast! These people really know how to treat an Avatar!" Aang cried digging in. He looked over at Sokka. "Sokka what's your problem? Eat!"  
"Not hungry," Sokka mumbled.  
"But you're always hungry!"  
There was awkward silence after that.  
"Because some girls kicked your butt?" Aang asked.  
"They sneaked up on me!"  
"And then they kicked your butt,"  
Sokka stood up, unfolding his crossed arms. "Sneak attacks don't count!" he stomped away muttering to himself. "I'm not scared of any girls!" He ran back and gathered an armful of food. He walked away eating and mumbling to himself. "Hm, this is tasty, who do they think they are anyways," Sokka said biting into a doughnut.

Sokka walked over to a small building and poked his head in and saw the girl's practicing. He walked in.  
"Sorry ladies for interrupting your dance lesson but I was looking for a place to work out?" Sokka asked flexing his arm muscles.  
"Well you came to the right place, I'm sorry about yesterday, we didn't know you were friends with the Avatar," the leader girl said.  
"It's okay, normally I would hold a grudge but since you're a bunch of girls I'll make an exception," Sokka said still flexing his minimal amount of muscle mass.  
"I would hope so, against a big strong man like you, we wouldn't stand a chance,"  
"True, but don't feel so bad, I'm the best warrior in my village,"  
"Best warrior? I don't suppose you could teach us some moves?"  
"Uh…"  
"Right girls?" the leader asked her friends. They giggled.  
"I'll be happy too," Sokka said.

After a brisk beating Sokka gave up. Those girls were stronger than he thought. He had left but decided to come back. Suki was insulted at first and didn't want to teach a boy but she gave in to his begging and apologizing. He had to wear the warriors uniform, it was a dress but he felt proud…until Aang passed by and saw him.  
"Nice dress Sokka," he said poking his head in before leaving.  
Sokka groaned. The girl's left and it was just him and Suki. Sokka was learning a new style all over again.  
Suki was kicking his butt—wait! He got her to the ground. She scowled as Sokka got cocky. Suki grinned and showed him, it was a so called lucky shot apparently. But Sokka was approving.

***Katara's POV*  
**.  
I stood on the top deck watching the water wide eyed. A sea creature was spasing in the water, and heading straight for a boy. Without thinking I dived in and used my water bending to get to the boy faster and get him out to the water. I pulled him to a cluster of rocks. I laid him down on his back. I gasped. The Avatar!  
Zuko was going by on the Rhinos. I held him close so he wouldn't be spotted.  
"Wake up!" I said shaking him. When he didn't I bended the water out of his mouth. He cough and sputtered before opening his eyes.  
"You! …uh…Don't ride the Unagi, not fun,"

These female warriors attacked Zuko's men as I helped the children get to safety.  
"Your little girls can't protect you Avatar," I heard Zuko say before Aang started fighting him. When the Avatar had taken care of Zuko I saw him take to the skies on his flying device, to survey the damage done would be my best guess. He didn't have time.  
When he landed I grabbed his hand and ran to the flying beast that a little lemur was on and Sokka was scrambling on. The beast flew up and Zuko shot orders to leave.  
Sokka didn't recognize me so I said nothing when he looked at me funny.  
Aang looked at the town sadly before jumping off. Sokka and I looked over the edge and saw Aang using the Unagi to put out the fire. He flew back up and landed next to me.  
"I knew that was stupid," Aang sighed.  
He looked over at me. "You can stay if you want,"  
I looked over at Sokka sadly. He was my brother, but I couldn't betray Zuko like that. _No Katara, he isn't your brother. _But I hardly know Sokka. _But he's family, Zuko isn't. _  
"I'm sorry," I said, looking as if it was too Aang but it was really to Sokka. I jumped in and landed softly in the water next to the ship. Water benders only get wet if they want to, I didn't want to.

***Slightly Earlier*  
**.  
Sokka and Suki knelt behind a building.  
"I'm sorry Suki, I treated you like a girl when I should have treated you like a Warrior," Sokka whispered.  
"I am a warrior, but I'm a girl too," she said kissing Sokka quickly before jumping up. "Now leave you blundering idiot before someone kicks your ass!" she exclaimed. "And that very well may be me!"

***Katara's POV*  
**.  
"Where have you been?" Zuko asked when he came back on the ship.  
I was sitting with Uncle watching him play Pai Sho. "Here of course," I said looking pleadingly at Uncle.  
Uncle winked at me. "Enjoying some tea and a quiet game of Pai Sho, which I am very well winning,"  
"No! Your losing by a long shot!" I cried.  
"Yeah, the little lady had quite the talent," Iroh said rolling his eyes.  
Zuko sighed wearily and walked below deck.

**Upcoming: The Kissing Bandit and Imprisoned  
I renamed the King of Omashu episode. **


	8. Chapter 7

**Sorry for taking forever! Anyways, to try to get the next to episodes (one chapter) in by Tuesday (Winter Solstice) I;m going to be working non stop for you guys! (I hope I can do it!) Enjoy the chappie!**

Cyan: My reaction when I first read your review: eek! but I fixed it! ^^ Thank you for that!  
Kate882: lol Thank you!

**WritersWand**

**Opposites Attract**

**Chapter 7**

**Episodes*  
*The King of Omashu  
*Imprisoned**

**The Kissing Bandit**

Determined

"The Earth Kingdom City: Omashu!" Aang exclaimed spreading his arms out to the great walled city that they approached. "I used to come here all the time to visit my friend Bumi,"  
"They have building's here that don't melt," Sokka noted jaw dropping.  
"Well let's go then slow poke! The real fun is inside the city!" the boy cried leaping into the air.  
"Wait Aang! If people find out you're the Avatar it could be bad! You need a disguise," Sokka suggested.  
"What am I supposed to do? Grow a mustache?" Aang joked.

Soon enough Sokka had Aang wearing a bison fur mustache with bison hair sticking out of a straw hat.  
"Arg this is itchy," Aang said scratching under his hat. He turned to Appa. "How do you live like this buddy?"  
Appa snorted at him.  
"Great! You look exactly like my Grandfather!" Sokka cried.  
"Come on young yippersnappers the great city awaits!" Aang cried in a fake strained voice as he walked crippled using his staff as a cane.

After a while of walking they came to the great walled city.  
"You're going to love Omashu. The people here are the friendliest in the city!" Aang cried.  
Just to contradict what the Avatar had said a guard spoke.  
"Rotten Cabbages! What kind of slum do you think we are?" he bellowed earthbending the cabbage cart into the abyss below. The cabbage vender scrambled over to the edge. "My cabbages!" he shrieked.  
"Just keep smiling," Aang grinned walking forward.  
The Earthbender jumped up in a bending stance, holding a boulder above Aang's head. "State your business,"  
Aang jumped out from beneath the boulder. "My business is my business young man! I have half a mind to swing you over my knee and paddle your backside!" Aang cried pointing his staff in the guards face.  
"Calm down old timer, just tell me your name,"  
"Bonzo Flippatatitus…the third! And this is my grandson!" Aang grinned gesturing towards Sokka. Sokka waved, not amused.  
"Stay out of trouble," he said letting them pass, but he grabbed Sokka's shoulder as he passed. "You seem like a strong young man. Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag!"  
"Good idea!" Aang cried tossing Sokka his bag. Sokka caught it annoyed.  
The guard opened the huge door letting them in. When they entered they ran over to the wall and leaned over it, amazed.  
"There are thousands of these chutes scaling the city that make up the delivery system. Earthbending brings them up, gravity brings them down," Aang explained.  
"Great so they get their mail on time," Sokka said bored.  
"Yes, but my friend Bumi thought of another purpose…" Aang trailed getting lost in thought.

Sokka and Aang now sat in a cart, Aang in the front, Sokka in the back, and Momo in Aang's hat.  
"Just one ride and we'll go to the North Pole," Aang said.  
"Wait, shouldn't we go to the shops first? I want some food," Sokka said.  
Aang sighed. "The shops will still be there-"  
Sokka climbed out of the cart shaking his head.  
"Fine, I'll stay here," Aang said happily. "Watching the cart,"  
"Whatever you say," Sokka droned.

Sokka approached the shops with a gleam in his eye. He loved shopping. He didn't have that much money to spare but he wanted to see what was in stock. Besides, if it kept him from plummeting to his death he was all for it.  
Sokka was so busy with his own thoughts he didn't see a large group gathering around a poster until he nearly ran into a guy.  
"Watch it kid," the man growled.  
"Sorry," Sokka mumbled. He tried to peer over the men but couldn't see so he listened instead.  
"She's wanted in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation," said the guy from before.  
"Where did you say she's from again?" a second guy asked.  
"People say she's from Ba Sing Se but I personally think she's from some small town," another guy answered him.  
"Interesting, she seduces you before robbing you of all your gold," one man said stroking his beard.  
"No your fool, she robs you of all your valuables-gold, jewelry, whatever-and for her male victims she gives them a kiss and leaves them a note, hence being named the Kissing Bandit," A studious looking guy answered him.  
"She hasn't been caught yet?"  
"Nope,"  
"Whoa,"  
"I dream of being robbed by her…"  
"Guys look! The Kissing Bandit!" Sokka cried.  
"What? Where?" The men scrambled in different directions as Sokka walked up to the poster to read it.

**WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE IN THE FIRE NATION & EARTH KINGDOM  
THE KISSING BANDIT**

There was a picture of a girl with long hair the color of the midnight sky, emerald green cat like eyes and pale moonlit skin. She had a tall, curvy frame and her dark hair fell over face so it covered her left eye. She looked like she was running away from something and looked back. Under the picture was a description:

**"Highly skilled Earthbender, watch out! Large Reward for capture. Last seen in Omashu. **

Sokka's eyes widened. "Whoa," he looked around. "Maybe if I…" he walked over to a table and put his boomerang on it.  
"I'm so not paying attention," he said out loud, sounding like an idiot.  
A girl walked by, she had long black hair back in a ponytail, revealing a heart shaped face. She wore a long black cloak, but with the hood down of course, that would be suspicious.  
"Too easy," She laughed walking away.  
Sokka's eyes widened. He didn't know why the thief was so open, maybe she thought highly of herself, or was a good escape artist, maybe she liked the public, or at the very least she could think that no one would capture her, they wanted to be robbed!  
Sokka walked a few feet away from the table, whistling.  
The girl leaned against the wall, rolled her eyes, and looked away.  
Sokka frowned. He walked back to the table. His boomerang was valuable right? He picked up his boomerang and slammed it back down on the table.  
"Fine!" He cried frustrated, stomping away.  
"Finally!" the girl whispered before running over to the table and scooping up his boomerang.  
Sokka turned back. "Hey!" Then he remembered. "Wait!" he called after her. "What about my kiss!"  
"You want a kiss? Have a kiss!" she said signing a piece of paper and pressing her lips to it. She tossed it back to him still running.  
Sokka caught it. There was the imprint of a kiss and a signature 'the kissing bandit,' "No! I mean on the lips! Here!" Sokka cried running after her and touching his lips.  
"Hell No!" The girl called back. Then she tripped, landing into a mail cart, slamming into the back of Aang. Like dominos, Sokka tripped in and slammed into the girl.  
"Ready now? And you brought a friend!" Aang grinned.  
"No!" The girl screamed as Sokka screamed. "Give me back my boomerang!" But it only sounded like "Aaang!" because the cart had lurched forward.  
"Faster? Alright!" Aang grinned as he used his airbending to make the cart go faster. The girl and Sokka screamed as they flew past the millions of chutes, rooftops, through windows, over walls, and ended crashing into a cabbage stand.  
"My cabbages!" The cabbage guy shrieked.  
"Two cabbages please," Aang smiled meekly.

The next thing the trio knew was that they were in a green and purple palace, in front of them on the throne sat an ancient king wearing an ugly crown. Behind them were two guards and the cabbage guy.  
"Hm?" the old king asked with an raised eyebrow.  
The three knelt down.  
"Your majesty, these three are under arrest for vandalism, traveling under false pretences, and malicious destruction of cabbages," a guard explained.  
"Off with their heads! One for every head of cabbage!" the vender cried jumping up and down.  
"Silence! Only the king can pass judgments!"-he turned to the king-"What is your judgment sir?"  
"Hm," the King said looking at each of the kids. Sokka gave a puppy dog face, the Kissing Bandit smiled innocently and Aang looked up whistling.  
"Throw them"-the kids look scared-"a feast!" he exclaimed.  
The guards looked astonished, the kids were confused.

They sat at a long table full with food, Momo was picking out.  
"The people in my city have grown fat due to many feasts, hopefully you like your chicken without skin," the king said holding up a chicken leg.  
"Thanks, but I don't eat meat," Aang said holding up his hands.  
"How about you? I bet you like meat," the king said shoving the chicken in Sokka's mouth. Sokka ate it.  
"Someone's crown is a little crooked," the bandit girl mumbled.  
"So, young bald one, tell me, where are you from?" the king asked.  
"I'm from…Kangaroo Island!" Aang blurted out.  
"Kangaroo Island eh? I hear that place is just hopping,"  
Awkward silence, then Sokka burst out laughing. "What? It was pretty funny…"  
"All these good jokes are making me tired, I think it's time to hit the hay," the king said stretching his arms and yawning. Wham! A chicken leg went flying through the air.  
Aang gasped and caught it with airbending. The soldier's gasped and the girl's eyes widened.  
"We have an airbending in our presence. And not just any airbender, the Avatar, accomplice by a thief, not just any thief, The Kissing Bandit," The King said standing up straight.  
Aang's arms dropped to his sides.  
"What do you have to say for yourself?" the King asked.  
Aang stood up. "Yep, you caught me. The Avatar-doing Avatar things, keeping the world safe, it doesn't look like there's any fire benders here"-he peers under the table cloth-"I think we're be going now,"-he finishes putting his arms around Sokka and-?-"Hey? Where's that girl?" Aang asked.  
"I fear the kissing bandit is making her dramatic mistake," The King noted.  
The Kissing Bandit froze in place, turning her head over her shoulder a little. She slowly turned around, hands in the air.  
"Alright, you caught me. The Kissing Bandit has finally been caught. What do I know? I'm just a fourteen year old girl trying to make a living in this troubled world," she said making everyone feel pity for her except for the king.  
She leapt up and landed on the table in a ready position, hand on the table.  
"Flying Earthbender!" the guards gasped.  
"Yep, the One and Only Jojo-"she didn't get to finish because just then she was knocked out cold. The three were then sent to the 'newly refurbished chamber that was once bad,'

Jojo was set on a bed before the gourds left closing them inside the room. Sokka and Aang paced around trying to figure out how to escape.  
"Jojo! Wake up! We need your help to escape! We can't earth bend this door!" Sokka cried. When she didn't respond they decided it was best to get some rest.

Aang woke up the next morning to a guard entering the room. He looked around and found the chamber empty.  
"Where are my friends?" he asked.  
"The king will return them to you when you complete his challenges," the guard answered.  
"And if I don't?"  
"He didn't say. Your staff please?"  
Aang tossed the guard his staff and followed him to the king.  
"First things First, How do you like my new outfit?" the King asked when Aang walked up.  
"Its fine I guess," Aang said scratching his head.  
"Good, you passed the first test, but that was a rather simple test, the challenges will be more…challenging," the King chuckled.  
The Avatar ran to the king."I'm tired of playing your crazy games! Give me my friend's back! We're leaving!"  
"I thought you'll say that, so I gave your friend's some gifts. Rings made out of pure geminate, also known as creeping crystal, by nightfall your friend's will be completely encased. Terrible fate really, I can stop it but you're going to have to cooperate," The king threatened.  
"It's already creeping!" Sokka cried.  
Aang looked over and noticed that the wall had opened up revealing Sokka and Jojo accompanied by guards.  
Jojo shook her wrist but even the talented earth bender couldn't get the rock off.  
"I'll do what you want," Aang said giving in.

Jojo was busy trying to get her bending to work to shatter, break, or crack the crystal. Come on! Could something at least happen? A small crack maybe? She was so distracted she hardly watched the challenges.  
The first was that the Avatar had to get a key from a fast flowing waterfall; the second was to bring the crazy man's pet back to him, turns out Flopsie wasn't the bunny. The last challenge was a battle. Aang had to choose between a thin man with a curved scythe and a large man holding an axe.  
Aang chose the king who stood in the middle. Yet it's never good to judge by appearance. Whipping off his outfit the king was revealed wearing but a dark green loin cloth, covered with white hair and gleaming muscles.  
The King jumped down to the earth below. "You thought I was a frail old man, well in reality I'm the most powerful earth bender you'll ever meet!"  
"Hey!" Jojo cried offended. Better than her? Ha!  
The battle dragged on, losing Jojo's interest. When it finally ended Aang emerged the victor, though it was sort of a draw.  
"So…now that you overcame all of my challenges you have to answer a question," the King said.  
"No fair!" Aang and Sokka cried.  
"Aw, but what's the point if you don't learn anything…so…what's my name?" he asked leaving, telling Aang he had about five minutes.

"Maybe's it's related to the challenges, oh, I know, Loony!" Jojo mumbled when he left.  
"Ummm…Rocky! You know, like rocks…he is an Earthbender!" Sokka cried.  
Jojo rolled her eyes.  
"I had to think differently than I normally do…I know his name," Aang said proudly.

Aang stood before the King. "I solved your riddle much like the challenges, a long time ago I was told to open my eyes to all the possibilities,"  
The King snorted a chuckle.  
"It's good to see you Bumi," Aang said hugging his friend.  
"You haven't changed a bit…literally,"  
"Over here!" Sokka cried.  
The crystal burst and exploded throughout the room. Bumi caught one in his hand and bit it. "Rock Candy,"  
Jojo groaned. Bumi explained he liked to mess with people and spoke to Aang about the Avatar job and how he wanted him to think like a mad genius.

While the old buds' went on their super slide Sokka and Jojo stood out the city.  
"So, you going to travel with us? We could really use you…" Sokka trailed.  
Jojo shook her head. "Nah, I'm a thief, I'm used to running around on my own,"  
"Oh…" Sokka said sadly.  
"But I'm sure we're see each other again," Jojo winked.  
Sokka nodded slowly. Jojo leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips before running off.  
Sokka stood awestruck. A smile slowly came to his lips. Sure he had been robbed of all his coins but he had been kissed.  
Kissed by the Kissing Bandit.

**Determined (Imprisoned)  
**.  
I opened the door to Zuko's room a crack and peeked in. Zuko stood looking out the window, watching the rolling waves crashing against the ship. I opened the door wide enough to slip in, closing it softly behind me, and walked over to the prince.  
"Zuko," I said softly.  
He turned his head slightly to me.  
"I was wondering about something, something Zhou said,"  
"Shoot," Zuko said calmly.  
"He spoke like your father gave you your scar, but I was there, I saw your sister burn you," I said in a confused tone, hoping he didn't take it the wrong way.  
He sighed. "Father wanted to protect his perfect little angel, so we made a deal that I did something wrong-I forget now-and ended up having to face him in an Agni kai. I told him I would never fight my father and he scowled, muttering under his breath where he thought I couldn't hear of course: 'which is why this plan fits so well,' we decided he gave me this scar as punishment of course. I was weak and undisciplined. He put it out that me trying to find the Avatar would be a quest to restore me honor, yet that's not necessarily true," Zuko explained heavily.  
"But that just put's your father in a bad position!" I exclaimed.  
"You don't get the Fire Nation, it didn't affect any known person's opinion,"  
"So now you're looking for the Avatar because you feel your father's disappointment in you and feel like he wants to kill you-you actually trusted the little devil Azula-and your trying to make your Father proud?"  
Zuko pursed his lips together and nodded.

Zuko and I sat, hidden in the bushes, as we watched Aang entertain himself by doing small airbending tricks in his hands. Momo sat next to him playing with pebbles. They were waiting for Sokka. We were waiting for the perfect time to 'pounce' or according to Zuko that is.  
Sokka walked up and dropped the meager ration of nuts he had gathered before Aang.  
Momo-appearing bored-banged a rock against another. A resounding boom is heard throughout the forest. Momo jumped and banged the rocks together again, the boom is heard. The little creature-feeling proud of himself-does it again.  
"I think we should go," Sokka said looking around, after the boom was heard when Momo didn't clash the rocks together.  
Aang and Momo ignored him, running towards the sound.  
Sokka clambered after the boy and his pet. "Just great, run towards the danger!"  
Zuko and I exchanged looks before pursuing them. After a while we stopped at a dried up riverbed to see a young Earthbender practicing.  
Aang walked up, introducing himself.  
The boy -as if startled- ran off sliding rocks from the opposite slopes down to block the way he has gone.  
We follow the companions to a small village, they were following the boy.  
Aang's eyes lit up as he eyed a vender in the street. He ran over and picked up a hat, handing the vender a few coins.  
Zuko yawned. "I'm going to head back to the ship for lunch, you coming?"  
I shook my head. "I'm going to look around the shops for anything interesting," I half-lied.  
Zuko shrugged and walked off.  
I walked over to that vender and bought a green, earth kingdom styled dress and changed into it behind a tree, I stuffed my fire nation dress in my bag. I didn't want these people looking at me as if I was a monster.  
I spotted the young Earthbender from before entering a shop. I followed him, Aang and Sokka must have had the same idea. I rushed over to a shelf, pretending to be examining the stock.  
"Hey! You're that guy we saw in the forest!" Aang exclaimed.  
The young bender pretends to be confused and Aang nonchalantly blurts out that they saw him earthbending and it was so cool.  
A woman-the shopkeeper- rushes over and closes the windows and door, as if not to be overheard. I take it she was the boy's mother.  
"Haru! You know you're not supposed to-" She began to scold Haru-the young bender-when an authoritative knock on the door forces her to divert her attention.  
Sokka peeked out the window. "Fire Nation! Act Natural!" he whispered.  
When Haru's mother opened the door the boys and lemur pretended to be frozen background characters. I snickered softly to myself. Haru looked over at me with a raised eyebrow but said nothing.  
The fire nation soilder raises a confused eyebrow at the boys.  
"We already payed the weekly tax!" Haru's mother snapped, diverting his attention.  
"Oh but my fine lady, it has doubled," he said summoning a flame to his palm. "I wouldn't want an accident. Fire can be so hard to control, but you know that,"  
Haru's eyes flashed with a defeated look as she gets a small box of coins.  
The soilder ruthlessly grabs the coins. "You can keep those," he said tauntingly as he drops the copper coins to the floor.  
I couldn't stop myself. "You can't threaten people like that, abusing your power! How selfish can you be! Taking the few coins these people have!" I cried, frustrated.  
The guard shot me a look. "You have quite the attitude young lady. Keep that mouth shut before you get in trouble," he said before closing the door and leaving.  
Haru's mother gingerly picked up the fallen coins and I noticed Haru's fists clenched.  
She explains the condition of this village to us and how they have been imprisoned for 5 years and how Ozai uses coal from the mines to fuel his ships.  
"The troops are thugs, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it," Haru interrupted.  
"Don't talk like that Haru!" his mother shushed him.  
"I'm not trying to be rude but why can't Haru help, since he's a bender?" I asked.  
Haru's mother shook her head. "Earthbending is forbidden: it had caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities,"  
"We can't help that we want to fight, bending is just part of who we are!" I pressed on.  
Haru's mother just shook her head. "They would take him away," she said. "Like his Father,"

Zuko came back a while later after I left the group. We hid in the group as we watched the group again. Zuko was waiting for Haru to leave.  
Near sunset Haru leads the two to a barn where they would stay for the night. As time passed Zuko yawned. "You know, I'll give the Avatar a break for today and go back to the ship, you?" he asked.  
"I'm going to stay here for a while, don't worry I'll return before midnight," I reassured him.  
Zuko nodded slowly and began walking back.  
When Haru left the barn I rushed after him. "Hey stranger," I grinned, falling into pace with the older boy.  
"Hey, Katara right?" he asked.  
I nodded, noticing how handsome he was with those emerald green eyes of his. We talked for a while about parents. We had a lot in common, and he actually listened to me. Haru told me about his father and how he led an uprising against the troops despite being outnumbered 10 to 1. Alas, they lost, were taken away, and never seen again. This is why he earth bends, it reminds him of his father.  
In return I tell him about my necklace, how my mother died protecting me, though she failed. It's the only thing that reminds me of her.  
"But that's not enough is it?" Haru asked.  
I shook my head, a tear sliding down my cheek. Haru puts a comforting-almost bug brother like-arm around my shoulder as we begin to return to his home, when we heard a boom come from the mines. We run to the entrance and find an old man trapped under a pile of heavy debris.  
We tried to save him, Haru holding back the entrance and stopping the showering of dirt as I tried to pull the man from underneath. It fails, and there's only one other choice.  
"You have to Earthbend!" I cried.  
Haru hesitated and shook his head. "I can't,"  
"You have to! There's no one even around! He'll die!" I plead.  
After some thought Haru gets into a stance and forces all the debris back with a thrust of his arms. Together we carry the old man back to the village.

At Haru's house we stop.  
"Well, see you tomorrow, 'Tara," Haru said.  
"Bye," I said heading back to the ship, changing back into my red dress of course.

I woke up the next day about mid morning. I left my room and peeked into Zuko's. He was still asleep. I walked out to the main deck and spotted Iroh, walking over to him where he sat, eating breakfast and looking over his Pai Sho tiles.  
"Good Mornin' Miss Katara," he greeted me.  
I smiled and greeted him back. I looked out at the land from where the ship was docked.  
"Go Katara, I'll think up something to tell my nephew," Iroh said nodding me off.  
I smiled and thanked him before running off. Before entering the village I changed into the green dress and left my bag by the ship that I would pick up later.  
I ran to Haru's house carrying a small bag of gold coins for them, I mean, did Zuko really need all that money? He could spare some.  
I stopped when I saw Haru's mother staring out into the distance. She turned her weatherworn face to me, tears streaked down her cheeks. My eyes widen with realization as I drop the purse near her and run off to find Aang and Sokka. It was that stupid, ungrateful old man! And I pressured Haru into doing it! I had to save him- and to do this I would get arrested myself.

I managed to get Aang and Sokka to help me. We went to the mines. Together we rolled a boulder on top of an air vent.  
"Ok It's quite simple. Aang just has to get below the vent and bend air to lift the boulder," Sokka explained as Aang got in position.  
The plan gets put to action when Fire Nation soilder walk towards us.  
Sokka and I run into each other and begin fake fighting. I decide to make fun of his big ears like I used to.  
"You-You giant eared cretin!" I cried, pretending to get frustrated. I lift my arms. Nothing happens. Aang!  
"Earthbending style!" I cried, really getting frustrated.  
The boulder lifted up, Momo stood behind it, wings outstretched.  
"That thing is bending," one soilder whispered to another.  
"Yeah, what should we do?" the other whispered.  
"Uh…she's earthbending! Attacking me!" Sokka cried, pointing at me.  
The soldiers embarrassingly agree and arrest me.  
As they take me away Sokka whispers as I pass that they won't be coming to help me if I take longer than twelve hours.

I am now wearing a brown, sleeveless cloak over my green dress as I am being shipped to a large, metal promontory, or island. I stood in a single file line with other newly captured Earthbenders as the Warden greeted us, saying how he saw us more like honored guests than prisoners, yeah, sure.  
While he's laying out the rules the old man next to me coughs out of sickness.  
The Warden unleashed a jet of flames at his feet. "A week in solitude should improve his manners,"  
My jaw dropped but I remained silent. I watched as they took the old man away.

We arrive at the ship yard filled with Earthbenders, but everything's made out of iron so they can't bend…I spot Haru and run over to him. He gives me a surprised look and I explain I'm the reason he's here so I had to help him.  
Haru sighed. "You've got guts girl," He then walked me over to his father, Tyro. I am given a bowl of bean-curd soup.  
"So, Tyro, what's the escape plan?" I asked taking in a spoonful of soup.  
Tyro laughed nervously. "Nothing, just to wait out the war, go home, and forget this all happened. People's lives are at stake and we are powerless," he explained.  
I pursed my lips together as I finish the contents of my bowl.  
When it's completely empty I scramble on top a pile of boxes and bang my spoon on my bowl to get the crowd's attention. They all slowly look up at me. I give them an inspirational speech. I tell them that Earthbenders are a strong people; they can accomplish anything, from noble and heroic deeds, to courageous acts. They may have lost their bending but not their pride or courage. I eyed the Warden watching me but continue.  
"Let is fight for our freedom!" I cry the arousing statement.  
No one makes any sort of attempt to rise. The Warden walked away, pleased. I am shocked.

I am shaken awake by small hands. I open my eyes and see the pale figure of Aang.  
"Come on," he whispers as he leads me where Sokka is waiting with Appa.  
"Hey, we can take you back now, you shouldn't stay here," Sokka said.  
I shake my head. "No! I have to help these people! You can help me!" I plead.  
My persistence eventually wins over Sokka. Aang sends Appa to the skies, though not quick enough.  
We spot two soldiers and run to hide behind a pile of cargo.  
"Was that a flying bison?" one soilder asked.  
"I think it was a buffalo," the other soilder said.  
"It was definitely a bison,"  
"It was a buffalo!"  
The Warden walked up rubbing his temples. This irritates him and he throws one man overboard. "Go get the captain!" he barked.  
"That **was** the captain sir…" the soilder still on board trailed.  
"Then wake up somebody I haven't thrown overboard and search the rig! There's something going on and I don't like it!"

From behind the boxes we form a plan. The smoke billowing out from the giant pillar gave Sokka an idea. It's almost dawn so Aang goes off to do his job and Sokka and I move to a vent in the shipyard.  
Sokka there explains to me how this will work. "You see, there's a huge deposit of coal at the base of this island and that's what makes the smoke. Right Now Aang is closing all the vents except this one,"-he points to the vent to the right of us-"He will use airbending so the coal has but one place to go, here,"  
At this statement a guard shouts and we are suddenly surrounded by soldiers, prisoners watch us. Sokka and I get in fighting position.  
"Stop! You can't win this fight!" Tyro shouts out.  
The Warden walks up to me and agrees. "Your one mistake from dying where you stand," he warns me.  
Soldiers advance towards us but jump back when coal shoots out from the vent, showering down in a large pile.  
"Your fate is in your hands!" I cried.  
Haru starts to walk up to the rocks but his father stops him. The other benders back up.  
The Warden laughs manically at my attempt to help these people who lost their spirit long ago.  
I finally decide to give up and collapse to my knees in defeat, my head bent down to my chest.  
The Warden turns to leave but is hit in the back of the head with a piece of coal. He spins around and faces an angry Haru spinning coal around above his hand.  
The Warden-now angered as well-shoots a blast of fire at Haru. Haru turns away to block himself but his father is the one to create a coal shield to protect them.  
The Battle begins.  
Sokka helps by cutting off the ends of the soldier's weapons, Momo kicks people with his feet. Haru and Tyro bend a large boulder and smash it into a wall, creating an exit.  
"Head to the ships while we hold them off!" Tyro shouts as Haru, a few others, and himself stay.  
I bend a stream of water from the sea and hit a group of gourds with it, soaking them. Sadly, it just seemed to get them angry. They shot fire at me but I consistently held water in front of me to douse their flames.  
Aang creates a mini tornado, launching coal all around; this is the final blow at taking out the majority of the soldiers.  
At this Aang is exhausted so they decide to leave, knowing everything will be find since the remaining Earthbenders are holding they left over Fire Benders over the water on a large boulder of coal.  
"Help! I can't swim!" The Warden cried.  
"Don't you worry, I hear cowards float," Tyro said smartly as they drop them into the water.

The Imprisoned Earthbenders had sailed home and Tyro, Haru, and I stand outside the village.  
"Thank you Katara, but right now I'm off to see my wife, I have missed a lot," Tyro said sadly as he walked off.  
Haru smiles at me. "Thanks 'Tara,"  
"It just took a little bit of coal," I said modestly.  
"It wasn't the coal, it was you,"  
I blush. "Well are you going to stay here?"  
Haru nodded. "I'm going to help my father retake our village. Now tell me Katara, what is an earth nation girl doing water bending on a ship?"  
I swallowed. "Because I'm really from the Southern Water tribe…" I trailed.  
Haru nods, there's no need for any more explanation, it doesn't matter.  
"Thanks again Katara, I never thought I would see my father again, I only wish there was some way…" he trailed.  
I nod knowingly as my hand reflexively goes up to my throat, and I realize my mother's necklace is missing.

Sokka stands in front of the abandoned mine, a night sky behind him, and the full moon above. Aang was resting in Haru's barn, they would leave early tomorrow. Katara's Gran Gran's betrothal necklace is lying on the ground and Sokka picks it up. He doesn't know this he just knows its water tribe styled and familiar. Sokka holds it in his hand and stares off into the distance.

**I's got a plan ;)**


	9. Chapter 8

**So, updated! (a fairly quick one too! lol) And I met my deadline too! ^^ I'm so happy! It's December 21, Winter Solstice. This is actually a shorter chapter then they have normally been. Anyways, it will probably be a while again before you guys get the next update, seeing as how I need to get caught up on my other fanfictions...and get my new oneshots up...Arg! I hate books! I hate movies! They give me too many ideas! Luckily I got none from the Sorcerer's Apprentice...Anyways...thank you for all the story alerts, reviews, and such! ^^**

**RoseJoanna: Thank you!**

**Suns3tSilv3r: Thanks! I will! ;)  
**

**Writerswand**  
**Opposites Attract**  
**Chapter 7**  
** Episodes***  
** *Winter Solstice Part I **  
** *Winter Solstice Part II Avatar Roku**  
** Fire, Water, Fire: A Great Team**  
** the Avatar is Acknowledged**

Somewhere in the forest I run to keep up with the prince who strides through the trees calling his uncle's name. I call as well, looking around.  
I spot Fire Nation clothes hanging on a branch so I point them out to Zuko, but he already notices Iroh in a hot spring.  
"We're closing in on the Avatar," Zuko tells his uncle.  
Iroh nonchalantly puts his thoughts aside. "Come in and relax Zuko," Iroh invited his nephew.  
I had closed my eyes, mostly out of respect and partly because…well, he was old!  
"Get out!" Zuko orders urgently.  
Iroh stands up and Zuko looks away.  
"Meet us at the ship or we're leaving without you,"

Iroh had snoozed off in the hot water and is awoken by a meadow vole. It jumps around trying to warn him.  
"That's a cute dance you got there," Iroh smiles sleepily.  
Then an upward landslide traps the old Firebender in place. Earthbenders approach the imprisoned man and recognize his red cloths.  
"This is no ordinary soilder. He is the Fire Lord's brother, Dragon of the West. The once Great General Iroh, but now he's our prisoner," the captain of the group says.  
Iroh glares at the group, unable to move.

The sky is tinged a darkening blue as Zuko and I arrive at the hot springs once again. We spot the earth shaped into jagged cuts inside the spring and realize Iroh's been captured by Earthbenders.  
I swallow. "I hope it wasn't anyone I know,"  
Zuko raised an eyebrow. "You know Earthbenders?"  
I bit my lip. "Remember that town from before? I got to know some people there…"  
Zuko narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

The Earthbenders use lanterns to light their way as they ride on top of armored ostriches.  
Iroh, bound by ropes and chains and wearing but a loin cloth, rides on top of one. "Where are we going?" he asks.  
"A place you're quite familiar with actually. You once lay siege to the city for 600 days, but it would not yield to you," the Captain explains.  
Iroh nods respectively. "Ah…the Great Ba Sing Se,"  
"It was greater than you," the captain quips.  
"My men were tired, I was tired, I'm still tired," Iroh retorts as he falls off the side of the ostrich.  
The benders surround him and get him back on his ride.  
Iroh smirks. He had left a sandal on the trail.

Zuko spots a sandal on the ground that I almost missed. He climbs off the Komodo Rhino and picks it up, he sniffs it, cringing at the smell.  
"That's a little strange, sniffing a shoe, a little stupid too," I grin.  
"I guess…No! It's Uncle Iroh!" Zuko exclaims hopping back on the Rhino and speeding forward, launching me into his back.  
Sadly we only had once Rhino. Besides, even if we did have two I wouldn't ride it. Those things hate me!

Iroh gasps as he sees a figure high in the sky riding a dragon.  
"Is there a problem?" the Captain asks.  
"My shackles are too loose," Iroh complains.  
The Captain gives him a confused look.  
"My old joints are sore and the shackles move around too much," Iroh explains.  
The Captain agrees and orders the Corporal to tighten the prisoner's shackles.  
Iroh cleverly heats the metal from heat from his nostrils, burning the Corporals hands, therefore making him scream in agony.  
Iroh jumps off the ostrich, shoots flames at its feet to startle it and begins to roll down the side of the pathway.  
In all the confusion the Captain spots Iroh as he rolls off the edge.

Iroh is rolling down the cliff, bracing all injuries along the way.  
Before he gets too far the Captain sends dirt over the Fire Generals body to stop him in place. The five earthbenders surround the trapped man and decide to punish him, since he's too dangerous to be taken to the capital.

Iroh is forced to place his shackled hands on a boulder where they are to be crushed.  
The Captain Earthbends another boulder to crush Iroh's hands with but doesn't get too far. This is because Zuko jumped out-seemingly from nowhere-and kicked the boulder aside.  
Meanwhile, I bend a stream of water from a nearby stream and freeze Iroh's shackles, breaking them.  
"Nice form guys," Iroh compliments us.  
"You taught me well," Zuko says as the three of us get into fighting stances, I hold a stream of water behind me.  
"Surrender yourselves! It's three against five, your clearly outnumbered," The Captain calls out.  
"Ah, true, but you're clearly outmatched," Iroh replies cunningly.  
The Fight begins.  
Iroh uses the now broken chain to break rocks thrown at him.  
Zuko swiftly dodges boulders aimed in his direction and knocks out two of the soldiers with Fire bending kicks.  
I whip two of the remaining three but they only seem to get angrier…a large boulder is aimed at me.  
Iroh steps in front of me and uses his chains to grab hold of the boulder and thrust it back at the Earth benders.  
I nod thanks in his direction and he shrugs.  
Only the Captain is left. He easily avoids and counteracts Zuko's fire attacks. He raises two tall earth pillars above him but Uncle Iroh's chains catch him around his ankles and pull him down, his own element buries him, defeating him.  
Together, we make an awesome trio. Well…not me very much…The fight ended in a few short minutes.  
Zuko places a hand on his uncle's shoulder. "Now will you please put on some clothes!" he says as Iroh is still only wearing that loin cloth around his mid section…

**The Avatar is Acknowledged (The Winter Solstice Part II; Avatar Roku)**

We had tracked the Avatar down to a small village outside a scorched forest. An elderly man that looked like the village leader walked out of his home to confront Prince Zuko.  
Zuko pushed the elder to the ground. "Have you seen the Avatar? Tell me the truth!" he demanded brusquely.  
I ran over to the old man and helped him up. "Zuko! How dare you! You could have hurt him!" I scolded the Prince. I turned to the man. "Have you seen the little Avatar?" I asked softly.  
The Man nodded. "He left,"  
"Do you know where?"  
"The Fire Nation Temple,"

Zuko's ship was hot in pursuit. He had an eye pressed to the telescope as he searched the skies. We were nearing Fire Nation territory.  
"Have you completely forgotten the Fire Lord banished you? What if you're caught?" Iroh began scolding his nephew.  
"Father will understand. I'm chasing the Avatar," Zuko tried to reason with his uncle.  
"My brother isn't the understanding type," Iroh retorted.  
Zuko turned his attention back to the telescope. By his reaction he spotted the bison. "Full speed ahead," he ordered.

We begin to reach a blockade. I decided it was best to stay quiet, thinking of my previous times where I spoke out.  
"Technically we're still in Earth Kingdom waters, turn back now and you can't be arrested," Iroh wisely pointed out.  
Zuko realized the Avatar is not backing down so he pushed on, not hearing his uncle's advice.  
"If the Fire Nation catches you there's nothing I can do, please let the Avatar go for now," Iroh pleaded with his nephew.  
Zuko looked from the telescope to Iroh. "I'm sorry Uncle," he said turning to the men on board. "Run the blockade!"  
I ran over to Zuko. "Please Zuko! Heed your Uncle's words! Nothing good will come out of this!" I cried.  
Zuko looked down at me sadly for a few moments before looking forward.

In charge of the blockade, Commander Zhao stands proudly. With his telescope he spots the Avatar and Prince Zuko's ship.  
"Fire the catapults! Aim for the bison!" he ordered.  
"It's a buffalo sir," one soilder smart mouthed.  
Zhao shot him a 'I don't give a shit,' look.  
"Um…there's a Fire Nation ship out there, it may be hit,"  
"So be it. It belongs to a traitor anyways," Zhao simply replied.

I watched as the flying bison-Appa-skillfully swerves and dodged the fireballs. One fire ball slams into the side of the ship. Everyone on deck slams forward into the side. By the soldiers shouts I could tell that the engines have been damaged.  
"Keep going! It's only a scratch!" Zuko exclaimed, downsizing the damage by a long shot.  
"A scratch?" I asked pulling myself up from against the wall where I fell.  
He ignored me. Trying to be optimistic I guess.

A soilder walked up to Commander Zhao. "Where do you think the Avatar is headed sir?" he asked.  
"I don't know, but I bet a certain banished prince does," Zhao said as he eyed Zuko's ship nearing.  
"We're on a collision course nephew," General Iroh told the prince.  
The girl remained quiet.  
"We can make it," Zuko said firmly.  
Zhao contemplates for a bit before ordering the men to cut the engines. Before the three ships collided the two blockade ships stop, letting Zuko's ship pass.  
Zhao and Zuko glared at each other furiously as they passed as if they could read each other's minds.  
Iroh stroked his beard in thought and the girl twirled a strand of hair from the end of her Fire Nation styled braid-that hung over her shoulder- around her finger in a nervous gesture of sorts'.

After a while Zuko's ship is still sailing.  
"What is Zhao up to uncle?" Zuko asked through gritted teeth, hands gripping the handrail with frustration.  
I place a hand on top of Zuko's before Iroh explained:  
"Zhao wants to follow us. We're both after the same prize-the Avatar,"  
"If Zhao wants to follow a trail of smoke that's exactly what I'll let him do," Zuko said.

Zuko put his plan into action, but of course, Zhao didn't know Zuko had a plan. He watched from behind his telescope as Zuko climbed into a small boat after it's lowered into the water. The girl started to follow him and inside the boat Zuko told her something and she seemed to get annoyed. She snapped at him and he gave in.  
Zhao looked away from his telescope and frowned.

"Aang, now!" a Fire Sage-who I took as Shyu- calls out.  
Aang doesn't appear, and this is because Zuko and I have arrived, hiding behind a pillar. It took a while to get here, luckily water bending helped. I'm so proud of myself! I carried us all the way up here on water!  
Sokka calls out Aang's name, breaking my train of thought.  
Zuko and I emerge, Zuko holding a struggling Aang's arms behind his back. "The Avatar's coming with me," he says.  
The other sages take this opportunity and take hold of each of their captors—Momo and Sokka both managed to hold one, Shyu held two somehow.  
"Close the doors!" Zuko barks.  
I look over and see Sokka, Shyu, and Momo chained to a pillar.  
Aang manages to get out of Zuko's grip and runs forward diving through the closing doors.

Zuko is now interrogating Shyu. "Why did you help the Avatar?"  
"It was once the Sages' duties, it still is," Shyu responds.  
I nod. "Indeed,"  
Zuko shoots me and an annoyed look.  
"It is!" I cried.  
"I thought you were on my side!" Zuko argued.  
I am! Sort of…" I trailed, scratching the back of my neck.  
We spin around to the sound of applauding.  
"What a moving and heartfelt performance, I'm sure the Fire Lord will understand when you explain why you three betrayed him," Zhao-who has arrived sadly-says.  
The Sages bow in respect as Zhao turns to Zuko. "It was a noble effort my prince, but your smokescreen failed to work,"  
Zuko glares at the Commander as he continues.  
"The Fire Lord will be pleased when he learns I captured three traitors in one day," he says as two soldiers walk up and hold Zuko and my hands behind our backs.  
"You're too late Zhao! The Avatar is safe inside and the doors are sealed!" I snap.  
"You have quite the mouth girl, but no matter. Sooner or Later the Avatar has to come out,"

The doors will open any time now. Zhao and his men prepare to attack.  
"As soon as the doors open unleash all your fire power!" Zhao shouts.  
Shyu, Sokka, Momo, Zuko, and I are all chained to pillars.  
"How is Aang going to get out of this?" I asks, worried for the boy.  
Zuko shoots me a confused look and I fall silent.  
"How are _we_ going to get out of this!" Sokka asks, forgetting about the necklace for a moment, the necklace that lay right in his pocket…

The doors open and Zhao and his men unleash all their fire at the figure standing before them. The fire is spiraled into a sphere.  
Zhao appears to be shocked to see Avatar Roku standing amidst in it, eyes glowing.  
Avatar Roku sends the flames flying back, sending Zhao and his men down and disintegrate the chains around the five of us.  
Shyu, Sokka, and Momo look up in amazement as we are unhurt.  
Though as soon as we are free Zuko grabs my arm and runs to the exit.  
I look at my brother sadly as I bend water up from the sea to take us out from the window.

Zhao watches in fury as the Avatar escapes yet again. He grumbles about how Prince Zuko got away too. Luckily, he did have five traitors, he thought looking at the five sages, including Shyu.  
"Technically Shyu helped the Avatar Sir," the leader sage says.  
"Save it for the Fire Lord!" Zhao snaps. "As far as I'm concerned your all guilty!"

I stand by Zuko trying to comfort him as he is very upset and stressed. He is my best friend and all.  
Zuko listens to me as he watches the Avatar through his telescope, but with more of a "We'll meet again' look. He's giving the boy a break; well, at least for now.

**So...any good? R/R! ...please?**


	10. Chapter 9

**oh my god that took freaking forever to update this chapter! Y.Y I'm so sorry, I hope this chapter will make up for it. I'm attempting to get more on task with my fanfictions...**

**a thanks to all my readers! ^_^'**

**Writerswand**

**Opposites Attract **

**Chapter 9**

** Episodes***

***The Waterbending Scroll**

** *Jet**

*Katara*

I sit, bored, on the ship's railing as I watch Zuko practice Firebending. Both Zuko and Uncle Iroh always tell me not to sit on this and that I'll fall, I reply that I'm a Waterbender and they drop it.  
Suddenly the ship takes a sharp right turn. Zuko slams sideways into the ship wall and I fall off.  
I scream on surprise more than anything.  
Zuko runs over, planning to drop an anchor-or that's at least how it looked- but saw me rising myself with water.  
I drop next to him, bending the water off of me and off the ship, annoyed.  
"I told you-"he begins.  
"Am I hurt? No!" I snap. Stupid karma, I think as Zuko sighs. "Why did we turn?" I ask after I was dry, changing the subject.  
"Somebody has changed course," Zuko says before we rush inside the ship.  
We quickly find Iroh.  
"Uncle! What do you think you're doing!" Zuko asks.  
"I lost a Lotus tile for my Pai Sho game, I have to go into town and find one," Iroh explains.  
"Oh, that makes sense, you shouldn't go around pretending to be a master of a game if you don't even have all the pieces!" I exclaim.  
"Yes! See Zuko, the girl understands—wait, pretends?" Iroh turns to me with an eyebrow raised.  
Zuko grumbles to himself and walks away.  
I giggle.

Iroh, Zuko, and I walk around this small port town looking for a Lotus tile. It's not going so well.  
Zuko is getting annoyed and I'm getting bored. As we pass a ship I get distracted. I look over to the two and make sure they aren't paying attention before running onto the ship.  
I look around and figure out this is a pirate ship, whatever. I walk around the ship, looking at the available merchandise.  
As I'm walking around the ship I hear two familiar voices behind me.  
I turn my back to them and pretend to be examining a shelf.  
"Aang, we should really get back before we waste our last two coins on more junk!" Sokka cries.  
"My Appa whistle is not junk!" Aang cries.  
I am pretending to examine the shelf but I couldn't help but get distracted. Today is definitely not a good day for me.  
I pull out a blue scroll and opened it. My eyes widen and I almost shriek. A Waterbending scroll! I had to get this! I run over to the tall man with a dark beard standing behind a counter.  
"How much is this?" I ask rapidly.  
The man laughs. "Too much for you,"  
My eyes narrow. "Just tell me the price!"  
"You don't have to be feisty,"  
"Just tell me,"  
"200 gold coins," the man says gruffly.  
I swallow and reach into my pockets slowly, coming out empty, even though I knew I would. Oh how I wish Zuko was here now. I look behind my shoulder and see Sokka examining swords. Typical.  
"Miss? Are you going to buy it or not?" the man asks.  
"Um…" I trail.  
Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder.  
I jump and turn around, startled. Aang stands there looking up at me.  
"I remember you! You trying to buy something you don't have the money for?" he asks.  
I nod slowly.  
Aang leans closer to me. ""You have to bargain with these kinds of people," he whispers.  
The boy jumps in front of me and leans against the counter, whipping out a coin and holding it up with his fingers. "How about for one copper coin?" he asks in a funny accent.  
The pirate burst out laughing and Aang's face brightens. The pirate stops laughing. "No,"  
Aang's face falls but he quickly recollects himself. "How about TWO copper coins?" he asks, picking up his accent again and whipping out another coin.  
"It was funny the first time, now it's just silly. I'm not selling for less than 200 gold coins," the pirate exclaims.  
Aang sighs and turns to me, holding the scroll out to me, expecting me to put it back."I'm sorry," he says.  
"It's fine…" I trail.  
We split and I walk over to the shelf, pretending to put the scroll back.

After a little while I cautiously look around and walk out towards the exit. Sokka and Aang left a moment ago and I see them walking along the river.  
I run up to them and throw my arms around their shoulders, the scroll in the folds of my dress.  
I look behind my shoulder as I speak. "Hey guys! Mind if I stay with you two for a while?"  
"Nope!" Aang says happily.  
"Oui! It's those kids! Get them!" one pirate roars from the top deck of the ship.  
"Come on!" I shout as we break into a run.  
In the high speed chase, Aang airbends a vender's cart out of the way, causing cabbages to fly everywhere.  
"My cabbages! This place is worse than Omashu!" the vender screams.  
"Poor guy…" Aang trails.  
"I think it's time to split!" I cry as I run in the opposite direction from the boys, knowing they would be fine.

I spot Zuko and Iroh walking towards the harbor. I run over to them.  
"So, uncle, I think it's time-"Zuko begins, but Iroh seems to spot the pirate ship and races toward it.  
Zuko sighs as I fell into pace next to him.  
Zuko looks over at me. "Katara? Where have you been?"  
I put on a clueless face of innocence. "What do you mean? I've been here all day!"  
Zuko shrugs as he starts to walk up the ramp to the pirate ship. "You coming?"  
"Um…You know, I think I'll rather stay outside," I say, scratching the back on my neck.

Later in the night I creep of the ship and swim to the other side of the river. I pull myself to land and bend the water off of me. I open the Waterbending scroll and pick out a move to practice.  
Single water whip. I study the formation and put the scroll on my waistband. I hold my hands in front of me to bend a stream of water out of the river. And I begin to practice.

Frustrated, I slam my arms down, the water splashes up all around me.  
I feel a hand on my shoulder and jump up and turn around, startled, splashing cold water on whoever it was.  
I come to face with Zuko and my hand flies to my chest. "Oh, it's just you," I let out a relieved sigh.  
"Were you expecting someone else?" Zuko asks, an eyebrow raised, the water quickly evaporating off of him.  
"Of course not!"  
"Then what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"  
I look down, staring at my toes. "Practicing…" I trail, noticing the pirates from before standing a ways off behind Zuko. "What are they doing here?" I ask softly, happy the scroll is hidden.  
"I teamed up with them to help me find the Avatar, well, and they want to get a Waterbending scroll he stole from them," Zuko explains.  
"And you trust them?"  
"Frankly, no, but they're pirates, when they want something, they will do almost anything to get it,"  
I closed my eyes. "That's what I'm afraid of," I say faintly.

Since then I did my best to stay clear of the pirates. Shortly after our conservation ended the pirates ran off to find the Avatar. They soon captured them and brought them back, all tied up.  
Aang looks around worriedly and Sokka's brow is scrunched together, he must be thinking hard.  
Aang sees me and catches my eye. He grins as if to tell me everything will be okay and they would get out of this in no time at all.  
I look back at Sokka and see his eyes widen.  
I smile, he's gotten an idea.  
"Why are you guys helping that spoiled rotten prince? What is he paying you?" Sokka asks the pirates.  
"He promised that he would help us get back the Waterbending scroll you stole from us," one pirate points out.  
Sokka's eyes flicker over to me for a moment before returning to the pirates. "And you trust him? We got no Waterbending scroll, and you think a _Firebender_ does either?" Sokka questions the pirates.  
The same pirate opens his mouth to speak but closes it, confused. They hadn't stolen the scroll had they? It was that brunette.  
Freakishly, all of the pirates' eyes turned toward me. Uh Oh.  
"The Prince's girl stole it! He's playing us!" another pirate screams.  
I put my empty hands up. "Whatever do you mean? Whatever would I need a Waterbending scroll for? I'm Fire Nation!" I cry, lying through my teeth.  
Sadly, the scroll falls from my dress to the ground below. Stupid Karma!  
"Curses," I mutter.  
The pirates scowl and Zuko turns to me, a mixture of confusion and anger on his face.  
I smile meekly. "Sorry?"  
Zuko snarls and turns toward the raging pirates. "I had no say in this!" Zuko shouts. "Listen to me! It's the Avatar! Get him!"  
The pirate captain walks toward Zuko. "I don't think you should be ordering us around anymore little prince," he grins.  
A fight breaks out with Aang and Sokka in the middle of it all.  
I watch them scramble to free themselves. Momo sweeps in and snatches the Waterbending Scroll, the Captain's reptile bird hot on her tail.  
Suddenly a dust cloud erupts, most likely a cover Aang created. There is a lot of shouting and I can't make sense of it.  
The dust cloud disappears for a moment and I see Aang surrounded by weapons all pointed at him, held by pirates and Fire nation soldiers.  
Aang brings the cover down again and the chaos continues.  
When I finally see Aang and Sokka emerge out of the dust cloud I beckon them over, to where I stand by the ships.  
"You need to get out of here!" I whisper loudly. "Aang, help me waterbend the ship into the water,"  
"I can't waterbend!" Aang cries.  
"Just try, you're the Avatar for crying out loud, it can't be too hard,"  
Aang reluctantly helps me and we slowly waterbend the ships into the water. We jump into the pirate ship and begin speeding down the river.  
I look behind my shoulder and see that the pirates have taken control of Zuko's ship and are chasing us down the river, gaining on us. They are practically on our tail, figuratively of course, not literally like in Momo's case.  
Speaking of Momo, she had dropped the scroll into my hands.  
"Thanks Mo!" I say, scratching behind her big ear.  
I look off the side of the ship and see Zuko and Iroh running after the ships. I stifle a laugh.  
Sokka shrieks and I look to see us heading straight for a waterfall!  
Aang and I run to the front of the ship and I frantically teach him to push and pull the water.  
We slowly and steadily save the boat, stopping it right before the waterfall.  
Alas, Zuko's ship, controlled by the pirates, slams into us, destroying their ship.  
We are forced to jump off, over the falls.  
In desperation, Aang blows a soundless whistle.  
Sokka groans but miraculously Appa swoops down from the clouds and saves us.  
I sigh, relieved, and drop the scroll. I give my regards and jump off Appa, bending water from the river to me to carry me to the riverbank. It was challenging, all that control, but determination helps though, well, and some adrenaline, which is why I gave Aang the Waterbending scroll. He needs it more than I. I've taught myself for nearly my whole life, I can do it now and later too, besides, Aang is the Avatar, he needs to learn Waterbending way before me.

Zuko and Iroh skid to a stop on a cliff, adjacent the falls.  
Zuko scowls as he watches the Avatar get away once again.  
Uncle Iroh whips a Lotus tile out of his sleeve. "I know this nay be frustrating but it was in my sleeve the whole time!" He grins.  
I laugh and Zuko snatches the tile away from his uncle, throwing it over the falls in frustration.  
Aw, too bad, now Uncle Iroh really needs to go shopping!

*Sokka*

Sokka leans over Appa, Waterbending scroll and Water Tribe Southern necklace in hand.  
"WAIT!" he cried, but his long departed, little sister was already gone.

**_Jet_**

Momo is chasing after a flying insect. She lands on the ground and is distracted by a pile of lynched nuts on a bunch of leaves. She hungrily jumps into the pile and is trapped in a cage with two other animals in similar traps, hanging suspended from tree branches.

"Momo! Where are you?" Aang calls, searching for his beloved pet.  
Sokka follows him, dripping wet from Aang's last 'teach himself Waterbending' with the scroll.  
Suddenly Momo's cry is heard throughout the forest. Aang breaks into a run, following the sound of the cries, eventually coming to the traps.  
Aang leaps into the air and lowers the cage for Momo to escape.  
The captured hog-monkey's cry out and Sokka tosses his boomerang to cut the ropes, freeing them.  
Sokka catches his boomerang and slides it back in his case as he kneels down to examine the trap. "Hey Aang, look at this,"  
Aang squats down next to him to look.  
"See the metal? The insignia? These are Fire Nation traps, we have to move," Sokka points out.

The three return to camp and Aang and Sokka pack up.  
Aang is about to put his pack on Appa when Sokka speaks. "The Fire Nation has been able to track us because of Appa's humongous size, we should stay hidden and walk," Sokka points out, proclaiming himself as leader of the small group, and that they should rely on his instincts.  
Aang sighs. "Well, who knows, walking could be fun!" Aang cries, trying to be optimistic.

After a long while of walking the pair were exhausted.  
"How did people ever get anywhere without flying bison's?" Aang wonders, yawning.  
"I guess I'm-" Sokka begins but is interrupted by someone throwing their arms around his and Aang's shoulders.  
"Hey guys! What are you doing out here?" a familiar, feminine voice asks.  
Sokka looks sideways and saw the dark haired, pale skinned, green eyed beauty looking behind her shoulder.  
"Hi Jojo!" Aang beams, happily.  
"Hey Aang," Jojo says without looking at him.  
"No greeting for me?" Sokka asks, pretending to pout.  
Jojo turns her head to face him, pretending to be annoyed. "Well he said hi and you didn't,"  
Aang laughs and Sokka smiles.  
"So, where's Appa? I've decided to go with you and be your Earthbending teacher!" Jojo says quickly.  
"You did?" Aang asks.  
Jojo nods.  
"Well that's great! But I need to learn Waterbending first since I already started a little…" Aang trails.  
Jojo waves him off. "That's perfect! But seriously, where's Appa? We need to get a move on—right Sokka?" She asks, winking at him.  
"Uh…" Sokka trails.  
"Sokka said it would be better to walk because then the Fire Nation won't be able to find us so easily," Aang explains to her.  
Jojo purses her lips together. "Who made him leader?"  
Aang shrugs. "Something about instincts,"  
"Why aren't you leader? You all the Avatar after all!"  
Aang didn't get to respond because just then a jet of flames shot out towards them, just missing Sokka, slightly singeing his sleeve but not catching.  
Soon enough the foursome-including Momo- were surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers, bursting with anger intensified fire power.  
"We promise not to hurt you if you let us pass," Sokka bluffs.  
The leader laughs but is shot in the back by an arrow.  
The group and the soldiers are shocked, Jojo is first to recover though and runs to the dead man, pulling out the arrow. She kneels, examining it.  
It was a simple arrow, wooden, feather, iron arrowhead, but this specific arrowhead was blunt, this excellent archer had to be very skilled.  
Jojo stands just before a group of teens jump down from the trees and begin taking out the soldiers.  
Jojo's eyes immediately fall to the boy about Sokka's age. He has short brown hair, tanned skin, and dark eyes. He wields Twin Tiger-Head Hook swords, weapons that take a lot of training to use properly, Jojo notes, thinking about the darts hidden in her sleeves.  
She has sleeping, poison, and just normal darts. Her attention was diverted back to the boy; he took out four soldiers in seconds.  
Jojo's eyes the tall, quiet boy sitting on a high tree branch, raining his arrows down on the soldiers; they are disarmed by his accurate shots.  
Jojo then recollects herself and joins Aang who is using his bending skills to help attack the soldiers.  
Jojo kicks up a boulder and punches it at a soldier, knocking him into a tree, hard.  
At the same time a huge man carrying a log twice the height of the tallest soldier smashes the soldier's blades to useless pieces of metal.  
The soldiers retreat in hopeless defeat and Jet jumps, taking out two more soldiers in a spin, where he lands in front of Jojo—who grins.  
Aang seems to be in awe. "That was amazing! You all took them out so quickly! I'm Aang, the Avatar, and this is Sokka and Jojo," he says, introducing them all. "Oh, and this is Momo," he adds as she perches on his shoulder.  
The cute boy with the hook swords nods. "Thanks, I'm Jet and these are my gang, the Freedom Fighters, Sneers, Smellerbee, Longshot, the Duke, and Pipsqueak," Jet explains, nodding in the direction of his friends.  
"Hey, you Pipsqueak?" Sokka asks, looking down at the small…boy.  
"I'm the Duke!" he shouts.  
"Oh…" Sokka trails meekly.  
"I'm Pipsqueak," the big man says gruffly.  
"Funny names," Sokka whispers.  
"I wouldn't say that, they all look capable of killing you," Jojo whispers solemnly, without looking at him.  
The group of Freedom Fighters walk into the bush.  
"Where are they going?" Aang asks Jet.  
"Before we ambushed the soldiers pursuing the Kissing Bandit-" Jet winked at Jojo- "We stumbled upon an abandoned Fire nation camp with barrels of blasting jelly and jelly candy we can take with us to our hideout," Jet explains.  
Aang nods. "I'll go help!" he cried, running into the bush.

Jojo leans against a tree spinning pebbles in the air above her fingers when Jet appears out of the shadows and approaches her.  
"Thanks for helping us, I know Aang already told you this, but you and your group are very skilled. I mean, so am I, but that was a lot of soldiers and I've been running for a while, I'm Jojo, of you didn't catch it," Jojo explains.  
Jet nods. "Yeah, when I saw the way you three fought-especially the way you blasted boulders at them- I wondered why you didn't attack them earlier,"  
"Apparently we were relying on instinct," Jojo shrugs, glancing a sidelong glare at Sokka, eyes narrow. He looked green with jealously, arms crossed, annoyed look on his face.  
Jet laughs. "You can get yourself killed doing that,"

Jojo, Aang, and Sokka are taken to the Freedom Fighter's hideout, which is hidden above, in the treetops.  
"Ponytail boy! Garb a rope!" Jet exclaims.  
Sokka frowns. "It's not a ponytail," but he grabs the rope and is blasted off into the trees.  
Jet offers a rope to Aang but he rejects it. "I got this," he says before leaping from branch to branch.  
"I'll like that," Jojo says, reaching for the rope, but Jet holds it away from her.  
"No, Jo, it's the only one left," Jet grins.  
"Then I'll toss it back!" Jojo snaps.  
Jet grabs Jojo's hand with his free hand and swings her into his arms. Before she can protest he jumps off the platform and soon enough Jet is holding Jojo with one arm as they ascend up into the trees.  
When they reach their destination they drop down onto a platform.  
"Whoa," Jojo breathes, taking in the scenery.  
They are amongst the trees, with wooden steps, ropes, and bridges that transport people to and from little huts built on branches.  
"I've never been this high before, unless I earthbend myself in the air, this is wicked, quite the sight Jet," Jojo compliments it.  
Realizing she's still in his arms, she spins out of them and balances herself against the tree.  
They begin walking to where the rest of the group would be waiting. As Jojo and Jet walk together, Jet explains their goal, which is to liberate a nearby Earth Kingdom village from the Fire Nation.  
Then he tells the story of some of his fighters. Longshot's village was burned down by the Fire Nation and the Duke was caught stealing food from the Fire Nation as is believed to have no real home.  
"What about you Jet?" Jojo asks.  
Jet stops, frozen in place on the middle of a bridge. "My parents were killed by the Fire Nation, I was only eight," he replies, solemnly.  
"My mother was killed by the Fire Nation when I was just an infant, I hardly remember her voice, I don't, and I just know her by the little picture my father used to keep of her. My father was kidnapped by the Fire Nation and is probably dead, I was only seven. A year before we moved out of Ba Sing Se to a small village, I don't know why, that village was burned down when I was eight," Jojo explains.  
Jet apologizes and they stand on the bridge in silence, not realizing that Sokka had followed them in the shadows, green with envy.

Nighttime approaches and everyone is gathered around a large meal table.  
Jet gives and inspirational speech and comments on the ambush that occurred earlier.  
"Everyone was great, especially Aang and Jojo, you're excellent benders," Jet compliments the two.  
"I know," Jojo waves him off.  
"Thanks!" Aang beams happily.  
"You both could be a lot of help in our upcoming mission-"Jet begins but Sokka stands.  
"I'm sorry, but we are going to have to leave tomorrow," he says, a mixture of skepticism, jealously, suspiciousness, and stubbornness all rolled up in one.  
"But Sokka, I have something planned for you too, it's very important," Jet grins.  
Sokka turns to face him, now interested.

It is the next day, shafts of sunlight seep through the foliage.  
Jet, Pipsqueak, and the Duke are hidden in the trees, communicating by whistling.  
Sokka stabs his knife into a tree and presses his ear against it, listening for any vibrations.  
Sokka eyes widen and he runs to Jet. "Someone's approaching!" he reports.  
Sokka runs to see who it is and sees it's only an old man taking a stroll. "False alarm! It's only an old man!"  
Ignoring Sokka, Jet jumps to the ground, maniacal grin on his face. Jet jumps in front of the old man and he is startled.  
Jet begins to interrogate the old man; he tries to run away but bumps into Pipsqueak and falls to the ground.  
Jet looms over his elder and begins mercilessly throwing accusations at him.  
The old man begs for mercy.  
"Does the Fire Nation have mercy?" he spits at the old man.  
Before he kicks the old man-who is on all fours- Sokka catches Jet's foot with his Water Tribe club and flips him over, anger about this intensified by anger about yesterday as well.  
"He's a harmless civilian Jet! Don't do this! I let you get away with some things, but not this!" he cries.  
The three Freedom Fights reluctantly leave but Sokka stays for a second, staring down at the old man.

Aang is running around a platform, having fun throwing firecrackers down on the ground. He throws one at Momo.  
Momo is startled and steals the bag from Aang, now making Aang jump to avoid the thrown sparkers.  
Jojo is sitting cross-legged on the ground, taking one apart.  
A disgruntled Sokka walks up to her and she looks up.  
"Jet is a thug; he ruthlessly attacked an old man,"  
"Just because he's old doesn't make him not dangerous," Jojo points out, remembering King Bumi.  
"He was harmless, defenseless!" Sokka argues.  
Jojo sighs. "I'll talk to him, but I don't believe you,"

In Jet's room, Jojo abruptly confronts Jet, slamming him against a wall. "I heard you attacked a harmless old man,"  
Sokka smiles as Jet and his shared crush slams-literally and figuratively- his rival.  
"Did Sokka mention he was Fire Nation?" Jet asks.  
Jojo looks back at Sokka, one hand still firmly pressing Jet against the wall.  
"He was still a harmless civilian!" Sokka cries.  
"Hardly," Jet scoffs, tossing something on the ground.  
Sokka picks it up, examining it. When he was finished he looked up. "This is an assassin's knife, with a hidden compartment for poison,"  
Jet nods. "The old man was sent to eliminate me,"  
"The old man never had this! He was unarmed!" Sokka shouts, storming out of the room.  
Aang-who was surprisingly quiet-shifts his feet.  
Jet proceeds to tell Aang and Jojo about the Fire Nation's plan to burn down the forest.  
Aang shakes his head sadly as Jet speaks.

Aang and Jojo go back to their shelter.  
"The Fire Nation is going to burn down this forest to Sokka!" Aang cries, tears in his eyes.  
"Don't worry Aang. Jet is very smooth, but he can't be trusted," Sokka says softly.  
"You're just jealous because he's a better fighter and leader than you. He's also cuter," Jojo grins.  
"I am not jealous! And he is ugly! Plus my instincts-"  
"_My_ instincts tell me to stay longer and help Jet,"  
"Then stay! Aang and I are leaving!"  
"…but I want to help to…" Aang trails.  
Sokka sighs.  
"Ha ha," Jojo says before she leaves the shelter with Aang, leaving Sokka alone.

Appa is resting in the trees' canopy as Sokka, Jojo, and Aang rest in their shelter.  
Sokka is resting in his guard position and is startled awake by movement outside. He peers outside to see Freedom Fighters descending down ropes.  
He quickly follows them through bushes, branches, and brambles—too quickly it's almost dawn, they stop by the edge of a cliff with the view of a reservoir and the Earth Kingdom town.  
Sokka listens as Jet explains that the reservoir needs to be full so none of the soldiers can survive.  
"But what of the people in town, won't they be wiped out too?" the Duke asks.  
"That's the price to get rid of the Fire Nation in this area," Jet sighs.  
Jet continues. "Longshot will not blow the dam until I give the signal…"  
While Sokka is eavesdropping he is taken by surprise when Smellerbee and Pipsqueak grab him from behind.  
Jet and Sokka argue but when Sokka does not heed Jet's words he orders Pipsqueak and Smellerbee to take him on a long walk.  
As Sokka is being led away Jet speaks. "Cheer up Ponytail boy, because we're going to win a great victory against the Fire Nation today," he grins.

Jet, Jojo and Aang are walking along an almost dry riverbed to where they will be able to help.  
Aang is suddenly blasted in the air by a stream of hot air.  
"We're here," Jet grins. "There is underground water trying to escape through vents in the ground. I want you to extract water from the geysers,"  
Aang nods, beginning to do the task.  
"What am I supposed to do? I'm not Waterbender," Jojo asks.  
Jet shrugged. "Open the geysers wider from Aang, open up a part of the river temporary to let water fill up the river, not to fast though, when you're done meet me back at the hideout,"  
Jojo nods and Jet left.

The pair finishes early and Jojo decides that they should meet Jet at the reservoir.  
"He'll be happy to see us," Jojo grins.  
Aang nods. "Of course!"

At the reservoir, Jojo and Aang see barrels of blasting jelly lines in front of the dam.  
"Jet's going to blow the dam!" Jojo realizes.  
Aang heads toward the dam on his glider but Jet intercedes and disarms him.  
He holds his arms up. "Alright, you caught me, I was going to destroy the town and its inhabitants, but it's war, the cost of war, the only way,"-he turns toward Jojo-"I want you to understand me Jo, I thought Sokka would too,"  
"Where's Sokka?" Jojo demands.  
Jet begins to walk towards her but she kicks up a boulder at him who just narrowly dodges it.  
"Tell me dammit!" she screams.

Aang tries to grab his glider but Jet uses his hook swords to pull it away and begins to attack.  
Aang leaps onto a tree branch. "I will not fight you Jet!"  
"You're going to have to if you want your glider back," Jet says, turning his back to Jojo, who is extremely angry now for being ignored.  
Jet then leaps up onto the branch and they end up battling in the trees. Jet and Aang leap from branch to branch and balance on the broad branches. Jet's awesome skill with the Tiger hooks is shown when he attaches them together and doubles his range. Aang avoids the attacks and uses his airbending skills to blow Jet off the branch. He succeeds, but Jet catches hold of a branch with his Tiger hooks.  
In the process, he drops the glider and Aang begins to plummet down towards his glider.  
Jet releases himself from the branch and increases his speed by plummeting straight down. He grabs hold of a limber branch and swats Aang into another branch.  
Aang falls to the ground and lands on his back with a hard thud.  
Jet jumps down and begins to approach the fallen Aang when a speeding boulder with Jojo on it slams him into a tree.  
"I'm an idiot Jet, I thought you were like me but of course you aren't. No one is. You are no better than the Fire Nation!" she spits, not able to come up with much else in her rage.  
"I'm nothing like the Fire Nation!" Jet cries.  
"Oh really? So you weren't going to kill a bunch of innocent people? That's what the Fire Nation does, you know that Jet,"  
Jet stares at the Earthbender, suddenly teary eyed, memories must have swarmed him. "I'm sorry, I really am Jo,"  
"Don't be telling me that,"  
Jet sighs but a whistle sound comes out by mistake. Jet's eyes widen. "Jo!" he screams.  
Jojo's eyes flicker to the dam and she jumps up, shooting herself in the air, and is sent flying towards the river.  
She lifts her arms and piles boulder on top of boulder until the rushing water came to a stop.  
Jojo sighs, relieved and exhausted, as she earthbends herself back to the group, where Sokka was with the townspeople. He had explained something to a guilty, ashamed looking Jet.  
Jojo grins. "Looks that you needn't go through all that trouble Sokka, the town is fine,"  
"Yeah! Jojo saved it! It was some wicked Earthbending! She's gotta teach me!" Aang cried.  
Jojo leans against a tree, arms crossed. "Waterbending first, remember?"  
Aang pouts.  
"Well, we shout probably be going…" Sokka trails as Aang whistles for Appa.  
"Can I come with you?" Jet asks.  
"Why!" Sokka asks, harshly.  
"I need this, I want to get better and help people more, I can do that with the Avatar," Jet explains.  
Jojo shrugged. "I see no problem with it,"  
"But what about the Freedom Fighters?" Aang asks.  
Jet smiles. "They will be fine, besides, it's time for a new leader anyways," he turns to the Duke.  
"Me?" _she_ asks.  
Jet nods and the Duke grins. "I promise I will do my best,"  
"I know you will,"  
Sokka sighs. "Fine…but…I kind of trapped Smellerbee and Pipsqueak in traps, we may want to free them before we go…" Sokka trails meekly.  
The Duke nods. "Don't worry Jet, I'll make sure everyone's okay,"  
"Thanks," Jet says.  
And so the foursome-plus Momo- climb upon Appa and ascend into the skies.

**eek. umm...review? **


	11. Importance Notice

**I am really bad at this fanfiction thing. I have almost no reason for not updating. Sure, my life did get busy and hectic, but I did have a lot of free time in which I could've written. But nope, instead I played video games or read/watched manga/anime/cartoons/Doctor Who/Sherlock. I have no excuse. I apologize for that.  
Unfortunately, with IB exams coming up in May, college life starting in September, and oh, getting a job, I foresee my life getting upturned. Gah, I'm a horrible fanfiction writer. Though, I suppose I could be worse. I could be Tara** **Gilesbie.  
I've also decided to rewrite this fanfiction. I believe the first few chapters were good, so I left those mostly untouched, with just a few minor things. Where I really started to change things was chapter 5 onward. If you've actually stuck with this story, impaitently waiting for the next upload, I congratulate you immensely with infinite cookies and hugs. :D If anyone like that is among those who were my small numbers of readers, I highly reccomend you to go back and reread my story. Not only because of such the long wait, but because you most likely will find it better. :)  
A few things I changed:  
-Fixed silly grammatical and literature mistakes.  
-Fixed loopholes that didn't fit with this specific plot line!  
-It became more consistent to the first few chapters  
-Zuko and Katara's relationship is stronger and more focused on  
-I fixed some loopholes I made.  
-I'm driving away from the show and going more AU  
-I decided Sokka has repressed memories, 'cause it makes more sense that way.  
-I'm becoming more focused with this story overall! I can do this guys. :)  
-Also, I retitled it. 'Opposites Attract' is just way too silly and elementary.  
So, if you have any interest whatsoever, which I really hope you do, go to my profile and (you may want to hide my excessively long bio =p) click on the story: "Boiling Water."  
**

**Thank You and Nerd On! :D**


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